Novel space-based design methodology for preliminary engineering design

Abstract

This work is motivated from set-based concurrent engineering (SBCE) paradigm. In contrast to the traditional design practice, SBCE considers a broader range of design possibilities (i.e., design space) from the outset, explicitly communicates and reasons about sets of design alternatives, and gradually narrows the sets to eliminate inferior alternatives until a final solution remains. Thus, the key to success of SBCE is the proper implementation of the space representation method to define the possible design region, the space mapping method to obtain the performance space achievable by the initial design space, and the space narrowing method to eliminate infeasible subspaces from the initial design space. This paper proposes a novel spacebased design methodology for preliminary engineering design. The main characteristic features of our approach are to incorporate the designer's preference structure with degrees of desirability in specifying both design space and performance space, and to find a ranged set of design solutions that satisfy changing sets of performance requirements through set-to-set space mapping from design space to performance space and space narrowing to eliminate infeasible design subspaces. Central to the proposed design methodology is the integration of meta-modeling techniques, modified fuzzy arithmetic, design of experiment (D o E), robust design techniques, and uncertainty analysis. A preliminary parametric design example of a vehicle side impact beam is demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and its availability in the large-scale multi-objective design synthesis problem.Keywords Fuzzy arithmetic · Measure of uncertainty · Robust and flexible design · Set-based concurrent engineering · Simulation-based design

Set-based Design Method for Multi-objective Structural Design with Conflicting Performances Under Topological Change

“…On the other hand, the idea of setbased approach [2,3] demonstrates the feature in the multipleobjective design problems. The authors have investigated the set-based design method with designer's preference (we call preference set-based design (PSD) method) [4,5,6]. The present Section outlines PSD method.…”

“…For example, in the case of a structural design of car doors [5], the set solutions of five design variables satisfying eight performances (strength, panel rigidity, torsional rigidity, crash energy absorption, cost, weight as well as energy consumption and CO2 emissions in product life cycle) are obtained simultaneously.…”

“…On the other hand, the authors developed the idea of setbased design method [2,3], and then proposed a practical method, called Preference Set-Based Design (PSD) Method, as a method to find set (interval) solutions of multiple design variables meeting a common space of multi-objective performances [4,5]. The proposed method is different from the previous methods obtaining the minimum point value exactly or approximately in the optimization process.…”

An innovation funnel process for set-based conceptual design via DOE exploration, DEA selection and computer simulation

“…When this is done, the set-based approach compares alternative concepts created from the design region in order to identify and eliminate inferior alternatives so that more desirable designs can be chosen. In other words, the purpose of the space-narrowing method is to eliminate infeasible subspaces so that the best alternatives can be chosen from the initial design space (Nahm and Ishikawa 2006). Because alternative concepts are not presented with detailed descriptions, but rather are sets of alternatives defined by incomplete specifications, making exact comparisons between them is challenging (ibid).…”

An application of the preference set-based design method to filter designs

“…Ishikawa, et a1. [3]- [6] proposed and developed a method named preference set-based design (PSD). The idea of preference set (PS) is so simple and unique that it make the concurrent design process clear.…”