Function modeling combined with physics-based reasoning for assessing design options and supporting innovative ideation

Abstract

Functional modeling is an analytical approach to design problems that is widely taught in certain academic communities but not often used by practitioners. This approach can be applied in multiple ways to formalize the understanding of the systems, to support the synthesis of the design in the development of a new product, or to support the analysis and improvement of existing systems incrementally. The type of usage depends on the objectives that are targeted. The objectives can be categorized into two key groups: discovering a totally new solution, or improving an existing one. This article proposes to use the functional modeling approach to achieve three goals: to support the representation of physics-based reasoning, to use this physics-based reasoning to assess design options, and finally to support innovative ideation. The exemplification of the function-based approach is presented via a case study of a glue gun proposed for this Special Issue. A reverse engineering approach is applied, and the authors seek an incremental improvement of the solution. As the physics-based reasoning model presented in this article is heavily dependent on the quality of the functional model, the authors propose a general approach to limit the interpretability of the functional representations by mapping the functional vocabulary with elementary structural blocks derived from bond graph theory. The physics-based reasoning approach is supported by a mathematical framework that is summarized in the article. The physics-based reasoning model is used for discovering the limitations of solutions in the form of internal contradictions and guiding the design ideation effort.

Synthesis of Functional Models From Use Cases Using the System State Flow Diagram: A Nested Systems Approach

“…This addresses a methodological gap in function modelling practice of complex systems, with conventional approaches tending to derive design architectures for the system based on the requirements captured from the analysis of multiple use cases, without developing a solution neutral functional model. The interest for methodologies for conceptual and architecture analysis of complex multi-modal systems is well reflected by recent literature (see for example Liu et al 2013, and2015;Mokhtarian et al, 2017). Crilly's (2013Crilly's ( , 2015 model of the nesting structure of systems within super-systems and the role of function modelling to map the propagation of flows through nested systems, provided a reference framework for the research presented in this paper.…”

A Conceptual Design and Modeling Framework for Integrated Additive Manufacturing

“…The sequence of functions in the functional model provides an initial insight into global causality. Mapping the functions to the Generic functional elements enables the extraction of the causality among the variables characterizing those functions [7]. Table 2 summarizes the causal rules in the DACM approach.…”

“…The functional mapping presented in the previous publication [7],transforms the functional model into the Generic functional representation (T2) in Figure 8. The is applied based on the type of assigned variables (see Table 3 and Figure 2).…”

“…the total surface of the support structure (S) and the number of elements (n) in the support structure. The DACM Framework applied to DFAM consists of removing or reducing the contradictions by providing innovative design solutions [48] [7]. The 'segmentation' of the support structure suggests increasing the number of elements (Maximizing n) while keeping the thickness of elements (t) as small as possible.…”

“…The Framework named 'Dimensional Analysis Conceptual Design (DACM) Framework' has been tested and validated on different case studies and for different usages [4], [5] [6]. This article proposes some extensions to the original Framework, which focuses on systems behavior [5] [7], to make it more suitable for Design for Additive Manufacturing. The article is organized as follows.…”