Simulation Apps

Making Simulation Practical and Safe for Non-Experts!

The ease, efficiency and speed of using simulation software is perhaps the primary factor impacting how frequently and widely simulation is conducted. Historically, its complex nature limited usage to a very small group of highly experienced experts. In response, Simulation Apps has emerged as a means to allow a much broader audience of non-specialists and occasional users to safely benefit from simulation.

Simulation Apps are fit-for-purpose user interfaces that drive simulation software or complete workflows such as 3-D, mesh based tools (e.g., FEA and CFD), calculation tools such as Excel, Mathematica, MATLAB, and Modelica, as well as in-house codes and scripts. They also provide the very important configuration management to ensure the correct data, files and models are being used, which also ensures repeatability.

Simulation Apps provide a streamlined and tailored user interface that greatly reduces the software expertise requirement, while inbuilt “intelligence”, for example embedded design rules and best practices, contribute to making these apps “safe” and practical to use by these non-experts.

Equally important is the speed and ease of creating these Simulation Apps. Specialty tools and “Low-Code Development Platforms” (LCDP) such as EASA enable the creation of Simulation Apps with little or no hand-coding, and this in turn enables those closest to the design process to build the apps rather than relying on IT developers. It is worth noting that EASA is particularly well suited for Excel based models, transforming spreadsheets into top tier modeling tools.

Increasingly, Simulation Apps are browser-based, and with authorized access into a corporate network one has access to Simulation Apps without any need to have locally installed software, eliminating yet another historical constraint of simulation and modeling.