Digital Twin of Electric Cables and Wire Harness

This paper was produced for the 2019 NAFEMS World Congress in Quebec Canada

Resource Abstract

Electric Cables and Wire Harness (EC&WH) have become more and more important these last years. Airplane, bus, car, motorbike designers are faced with increasing challenges related to these. Introducing simulation at earlier design phases has become mandatory to address these technological challenges. Amongst other new problems to solve, like Electro-magnetic effects of high-voltage cables and devices, the mechanical behavior of these EC&WH must be integrated in the full vehicle design process.



Electric cables and wire harness must be accurately designed to allow a feasible mounting. Nowadays, harness may weights more than 100kg and cumulated length may be over 10km (for a mid-range car). Harness manufacturing process will determine if it can be mounted in its final position. Once the harness is mounted in the car, it will be submitted to different solicitations like movement of parts it is attached to and vibrations coming from the environment (engine, driving conditions). Mounting virtually the harness and simulating its response to excitations is thus mandatory to ensure an optimal design avoiding undesired collisions with vehicle parts, monitoring and optimize excessive bending or torsion (reduced electrical signal or even signal loss), monitoring and reducing excessive extraction forces at the connected points (clips). Bad designs may lead to costly vehicle recalls and risks of fire and other severe damages.



This paper describes how specific problems related to EC&WH may be addressed using a Digital Twin of the vehicle. Introducing simulation methods in the designers environment (CAD based), allows to get rid of the need and cost of physical prototypes.