Concept: A jet engine mounted under the wing of an airplane, with a digital twin display superimposed over it, indicating real-time tracking data from sensors.
🚀 Case Study: Digital Twin in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in the Aerospace Industry
One of the most prominent and widely known case studies of the application of Digital Twin in the aerospace industry is Rolls-Royce aircraft engine maintenance.
Aeroengine giant Rolls-Royce uses a digital twin to track each jet engine throughout its product lifecycle (PLM), from factory to retirement, with significant impact on both design and maintenance.
1. Maintenance Impact
The use of Digital Twin in maintenance can transform the way maintenance is done from scheduled maintenance to personalized maintenance (Predictive Maintenance).
One Twin Per Engine: Each jet engine is created with a unique digital twin , a virtual replica of that engine.
Real-time status tracking: The engine will be equipped with thousands of IoT sensors (temperature, pressure, vibration). These data will be continuously transmitted to the digital twin in the cloud.
Accurate Failure Prediction: Digital Twin uses real-time data coupled with physics-based models to predict the remaining useful life of critical components such as blades, turbines or bearings.
Result: A significant reduction in unscheduled downtime can be achieved because maintenance teams can plan to replace parts during scheduled maintenance before the aircraft fails.
Operational Optimization: The data helps airlines reduce maintenance costs and extend the life of each engine.
2. Design Impact
The heart of a digital twin in the context of PLM is creating a feedback loop between actual work and future design.
Design Feedback Loop: Actual data collected from the Digital Twin over the life of the engine (e.g. actual wear conditions under various flight conditions) is fed back to the design engineers.
Advanced Product Development: Engineers use predicted failure data and real-world performance to simulate scenarios to improve engine designs for future iterations.
For example: If a digital twin indicates that a part is likely to wear faster than expected under high pressure, engineers can use this information to modify the material or geometry of that part in a 3D model of the new engine.
Reducing development time: Using a digital twin to simulate and test designs significantly reduces the need for expensive physical prototypes, allowing some aerospace companies to reduce the time it takes to develop advanced products by up to$30$to$40$percent
Digital Twins not only extend the life of current products but also drive innovation for future product designs.
| Technology & Ideas | Digital Twin , PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), IoT Sensors, Simulation, Predictive Analytics, Design Feedback Loop |
| industry | Aerospace , Aircraft Engine, MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul), High-Value Assets |
| Results & Process | Maintenance Optimization, Downtime Reduction, Unscheduled Downtime, Design Improvement, Time-to-Market, Cost Reduction, RUL (Remaining Useful Life) |
| organization | Rolls-Royce |
