Jun 08, 2023

DigiTain – Digitalization for Sustainability

KickOff_Digitain — DigiTain KickOff Participants

Consisting of 26 funded and 2 associated partners from industry and science, the DigiTain research project started on 01.01.2023 with a total project duration of 36 months. In DigiTain, processes, methods and models for fully digital product development and certification of sustainable electric drive architectures are being developed and tested using a technology carrier.

The project is being funded by the German government and the European Union as part of the economic stimulus package, section 35c in module b „Neue, innovative Produkte als Schlüssel für Fahrzeuge und Mobilität der Zukunft“ (eng. “New, innovative products as the key to vehicles and mobility of the future”). "In particular, the holistic approach that integrates several technological innovations, the cross-value-added networking of the partners and their specialist expertise, and the associated transfer potential in industry and society make Digitain a lighthouse project in our specialist program," says Stefan Heidemann of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

The project sponsorship for DigiTain has been taken over by TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH.

For the kick-off meeting on January 31, 2023, around 100 participants of the consortium met mostly on site at the consortium leader Mercedes-Benz AG in Sindelfingen, but also partly virtually. In addition to the presentation of the work packages and the planning of the collaboration, the kick-off meeting offered the partners the opportunity for a comprehensive exchange about the planned research content.

Digitization of vehicle development and certification for sustainable drive architectures of tomorrow

Ecological and economic sustainability criteria in the development of vehicle and drive architectures are becoming increasingly important in politics, society and industry. The technical and economic criteria of classic product development and optimization with an ecological product evaluation only in the late phase of product development are therefore no longer sufficient and up to date.

The development-accompanying sustainability assessment during the product development process currently poses great challenges for developers, since suitable digital processes, methods and tools for the development-accompanying ecological optimization of the entire vehicle including the drive components are not available. In addition, there is a lack of binding standards for fully digital product development and assessment, which means that a large number of experimental validation tests are still required for certification.

Digitain_PM2_eng — Structure of the project

DigiTain is therefore precisely developing those processes, methods and models for the fully digital product development and certification of electric drive architectures that not only aim to develop competitive drives from the outset, but also incorporate ecological and economic sustainability criteria. The goal is a holistic development of the entire vehicle and drive architecture, considering all product-induced areas. The application and validation of the sustainability-oriented development process (SDP) as well as the developed generic methods and models is carried out using the example of the development and optimization of an electric vehicle with a hybrid drive strategy consisting of a fuel cell unit and HV battery system.

TU Dresden within Project DigiTain

To implement state-of-the-art digital and sustainable development approaches, the Institute of Lightweight Design and Polymer Technology (ILK), represented by the Chair of Function-integrative Lightweight Engineering [Prof. Dr.-Ing. Niels Modler], is working together with the Chair of Virtual Product Development (VPE) [Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kristin Paetzold-Byhain] specifically on solutions for sustainable drive architectures. The TU Dresden is involved in the following work packages:

AP1: Sustainability

The TU Dresden focuses on the further development of the sustainability-oriented product development process (SDP) as a generic framework for the integration of sustainability aspects into product development. Among other things, the focus is on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and life cycle modeling using Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches. Through the intensive exchange with all partners, the SDP becomes applicable across the board for the development of all hardware systems.

AP2: Digital Methods and Models

The process steps that are passed through during product development regarding design, analysis, validation and verification must be linked and structured with each other, taking into account a large number of different input data, in order to ensure sustainable use of the data in terms of product lifecycle management. In cooperation with XPLM Solution GmbH Dresden, TU Dresden is developing an applicable, digital solution for data exchange and data management for the process chain and linked modeling within the product development process in this work package, with a particular focus on the calculation process chains for the design of highly dynamically loaded lightweight structures. This should enable more efficient work within CAE-based vehicle design in this and future projects.

AP7: HV-Battery

TU Dresden is developing sustainable and recyclable battery housings using hybrid construction methods. The aim is to combine the best properties of FRP, metals and plastics to ensure structures with a minimal environmental footprint and full vehicle safety. Unlike many existing FRP and plastic battery housings, only thermoplastic polymer systems are used. This is intended to break new ground in End-of-Life solutions and circular battery systems.

AP8: Electric Drive Unit

In this work package, TU Dresden is working on the development of axially scalable system architectures of electric axes using FKV rotor shafts and housing components in hybrid design. The goal of the scalable architecture is to provide a variety of drive configurations with a minimum of development effort as well as a reduction of the required tooling to produce the systems. This saves resources in development and production.