Yellow River Engineering Consulting

The rapid development of China’s infrastructure creates new opportunities

The Yellow River in China is one of the most challenging rivers to manage in the world. As a result, the Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China has adopted various flood management plans dedicated to the management and development of this waterway. Their goal is to protect the lives, property, and safety of millions of people living along the river, as well as to support the economic development of the surrounding regions. Yellow River Engineering Consulting (YREC) is an engineering consulting firm that deals with river management and development, water conservation, and hydropower-related projects. In 2003, the company was transformed into a technology company and has since successfully designed and constructed more than 30 large and medium-sized water protection and hydraulic engineering structures on the Yellow River and its tributaries. “China is experiencing rapid infrastructure development, so there is a growing demand for water resource management, hydropower, and civil engineering projects,” said Xindai An, president of YREC. “The market has enormous growth potential, and competition is fierce. If a company wants to capture a share of this market, it must improve the quality of project design as well as its efficiency while simultaneously reducing costs.”

“Today, design engineering teams face challenging tasks that include higher design complexity, shorter cycle times, and clients who request to monitor the progress of their project throughout the entire creation process,” said Shunqun Yang, head of the YREC engineering design academy. Despite the abundance of opportunities, the design industry must evolve to capture new business.

Effective collaboration, faster design

To enhance YREC’s success in this competitive environment, the company implemented the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform from Dassault Systèmes for collaborative design and innovative manufacturing. “We carefully tested several solutions before concluding that 3DEXPERIENCE was the best fit for improving our efficiency and the quality of our work,” said Yan. “The platform has revolutionized our traditional approach to design with its ‘what you see is what you get’ capability. This way, our clients have an accurate understanding of what the final result will look like and how it fits into the environment, even before construction crews start working. Previously, we mainly relied on 2D drawings in our projects. On the construction site, the owner and supervisor could not easily see last-minute changes on-site. Geographic conditions in the field often change, and 2D drawings cannot reflect these changes in real-time, making the response time in the field very slow. Now, thanks to 3D models and the collaborative capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, communication between those working on-site and our designers in the office has significantly improved. Everyone can access the latest models and make decisions and changes in real-time, which saves a lot of time and money,” he said. “In addition to owners, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform also enhances communication with government officials, facilitating and speeding up project decision-making,” emphasized Sindai An.

“Previously, designers and specialists on-site exchanged files via email, but version errors or loss of information caused frustration and a number of issues,” said Lily Go, director of the Digital Design Center at the Engineering Design Academy at YREC. “With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we design using a single source of data and can see each other’s work, which greatly enhances the quality of our communication. Project reviews are conducted online, and errors can be corrected immediately. It’s a very simple, intuitive, and efficient way of working,” she said.

Earthworks design is one of the most challenging tasks faced by every project in its early stages. “In engineering and construction projects related to water conservation and hydropower, earthworks design is a discipline associated with complex space,” said Go. “The likelihood of making a mistake is high because various intervening disciplines are not properly consulting with each other during the preparation stages. With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, multiple involved specialists can simultaneously open the model and analyze various interactive factors affecting the excavation design before selecting the best approach, all in a digital environment. This is a huge advantage,” she said.

Hydropower structures are massive and typically involve construction work and equipment that can affect distances ranging from several kilometers to tens of kilometers. “Using the previous solution, we would have to scale down construction models, but the machinery was designed at a 1:1 scale,” said Go. “When we combined them, we often encountered problems. Now with 3DEXPERIENCE, we create our projects at real scale, which is convenient. Additionally, interacting with third-party software was a problem in the past since our previous solution did not support geodetic coordinates. This is no longer an issue, as with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform we can fully base our projects on geodetic coordinates.”

“In the past, many of our projects, especially those with incorrect structures, could not be prototyped and could only be visualized after they were built,” said Yan. “Thanks to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the real shapes of components of complex structures, such as our spiral castings, can now be visualized immediately after the design is completed. Another area where digital modeling is beneficial is the layout of rebar in concrete structures. When we place them in a virtual environment, the system automatically detects interferences that we can easily correct in advance. This way, we can confidently present our project to the client.”

Use professional know-how and experience

The construction industry is subject to high employee turnover, and retaining professional know-how and experience is a serious challenge. “Now we can leverage corporate knowledge and experience on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. As a result, design engineers, including newcomers or colleagues working on other projects, can utilize this knowledge to perform their jobs effectively,” said Guo. “Worker safety is another serious issue, so our designers use this platform to verify the comfort and safety of their designs in an immersive digital environment, making it eco-friendly and convenient for workers.”

Sindai An believes that Dassault Systèmes’ decision was the right move. “The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is the perfect solution for a project organization like YREC, whose goal is to enhance expressiveness, quality, and efficiency of product design while optimizing design costs.”