D-mapping: A knowledge-based method for requirements mining and concept design

An expert system for the conceptual design of bridges

As design requirements and affordability for future aircraft become increasingly demanding, aircraft design processes will be required to explore a larger design space and capture multi-disciplinary effects during conceptual design to effectively assess the benefits of new technologies. Lockheed Martin is currently participating in the ESAVE (Efficient Supersonic Air Vehicle Exploration) AFRL program which is developing MDO-based improvements to the fighter strike conceptual design process. This paper discusses the program progress to date of both conceptual design process improvements for fighter/strike aircraft and the application of the resultant MDO process to a specific design problem. The fighter/strike design process involves many coupled discipline interactions due to demanding mission performance requirements. The ESAVE program has focused on capturing the discipline interactions required for the active structures and variable cycle engine technologies. Initial results demonstrate that integration of these structural and propulsion technologies in an MDO-based framework expands the traditional fighter/strike design space and can potentially provide significant performance improvements compared to conventional conceptual design processes.

Genetics-based design is an effective approach to develop novel products for conceptual design. It could reduce innovation blindness by providing logically structured procedure. However, the major challenge of genetics-based engineering method is that how to identify what information is genetic information and how to use it in a conceptual design process. To solve this problem, this article proposes a conceptual design method driven by product genes. First, a functional expansion model is established based on analyzing the conceptual design process. Second, to respectively compare the functions and structure schemes in the model to biological traits and proteins, a product gene definition composed of behaviors and attributes is put forward. Then, a modeling and coding method of product genes is given analogous to that of biological genes. Third, operation technologies of product genes are analyzed, including breakdown, crossover, recombination, transcription, and translation. Based on this, a conceptual design method driven by product genes is advanced. Finally, an example shows that this method is able to extract key information of products and gives a method of how to use the information in a conceptual design process. Moreover, structure schemes obtained through this method are of high feasibility and have more possibilities of innovation.

Storing and Retrieving Design Solution in the Physical Domain Based on DFX Tools and Morphological Analysis

Empirical sizing guidelines such as tail volume coefficients have long been used in the early aircraft design phases for sizing stabilizers, resulting in conservatively stable aircraft. While successful, this results in increased empty weight, reduced performance, and greater procurement and operational cost relative to an aircraft with optimally sized surfaces. Including flight dynamics in the conceptual design process allows the design to move away from empirical methods while implementing modern control techniques. A challenge of flight dynamics and control is the numerous design variables, which are changing fluidly throughout the conceptual design process, required to evaluate the system response to some disturbance. This research focuses on addressing that challenge not by implementing higher order tools, such as computational fluid dynamics, but instead by linking the lower order tools typically used within the conceptual design process so each discipline feeds into the other. In thisresearch, flight dynamics and control was incorporated into the conceptual design process along with the traditional disciplines of vehicle sizing, weight estimation, aerodynamics, and performance. For the controller, a linear quadratic regulator structure with constant gains has been specified to reduce the user input. Coupling all the disciplines in the conceptual design phase allows the aircraft designer to explore larger design spaces where stabilizers are sized according to dynamic response constraints rather than historical static margin and volume coefficient guidelines.

This paper establishes an analytical model for component mass, takeoff weight, and performance constraints of distributed electric propulsion (DEP) propeller-driven short takeoff and landing (STOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and develops a conceptual design method considering propulsive/aerodynamic coupling effects. The proposed approach was applied to design a 350 kilogram-class DEP UAV with STOL capability, verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of the design method. To investigate the layout design and propulsive/aerodynamic coupling characteristics of DEP UAV, three UAV configurations with different DEP arrangements are formulated and studied, and the results indicate that the flap deflection significantly increases the lift coefficient of the UAV during takeoff, and under the same total thrust and power conditions, the lift-enhancement using DEP arrangement is more significant. In addition, it is necessary to fully consider the propulsive/aerodynamic coupling effects in the conceptual design process, and this is of great significance for the future development of DEP STOL UAV.

Advanced technologies such as Active Flow Control (AFC) offer the potential to revolutionize next generation aircraft design through enhancing aircraft maneuver, control, and operation. DARPA’s CRANE (Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors) program seeks to incorporate AFC into an aircraft design, then build and fly an X-Plane to demonstrate the potential capabilities and benefits of AFC technology. As a performer in the Phase and Phase 1 programs, Lockheed Martin has made significant progress on the development of a full-scale, tailless aircraft with an integrated AFC system to enable unique maneuvers without the use of conventional control surfaces. The Lockheed Martin-led team developed an approach that consisted of four key activities. 1. Design Library. Developing a multi-variate aerodynamic database (design library) for Active Flow Control. This was an offline process using CFD tools and significant HPC computing resources to model the complex aerodynamics and boundary layer affects associated with AFC. Response Surface Models were developed to integrate the aerodynamic effects of AFC into the Conceptual Design Process. 2. Conceptual Design Methods. Developing new methods and tools that would properly account for the effects of AFC. This included updating Stability and Control models to determine control power required and control power available, updating flight control model simulations for implementation of AFC, updated MDAO models to incorporate the changes to aero, propulsion, mass properties, and updating Operations Analysis models to model new maneuvers and behaviors achievable with AFC. These new methods were used in conducting trade studies for the design of the AFC system, the propulsion system, and the air vehicle. 3. RPV Verification. Performing test activities that help verify and calibrate our analytical methods, as well as reducing key risks. Multiple wind tunnel tests were conducted to validate the numerical simulations and gather data to capture the forces and moments generated by the various fluidic effectors on the vehicle. A subscale, dynamically scaled RPV (Remotely Piloted Vehicle) with integrated AFC was built and flown to gather additional data on aspects of interest such as flight controls and control authority, while serving as risk reduction for the larger scale X-Plane. 4. X-Plane Design. Complete the design of an AFC-enabled X-Plane. The X-Plane will serve as validation of our methods as well as demonstrate the potential for AFC to enable new and compelling mission capabilities. The work in Phase 1 matures the X-Plane design in preparation for a Preliminary Design Review. This presentation will provide an overview of the Lockheed Martin team’s progress, while highlighting challenges, solutions developed, and lessons learned under the DARPA CRANE program.

The major concern in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is time, cost, and quality. The design for industrial building project usually complex, particularly in a field of mechanical and piping process due to the large involvement of project stakeholders. The case company, which is the specialist supplier of industrial piping solution in Thailand, reported the issue of redesigns regarding to their poor project management of conceptual design process in construction project that effect to their work performance and customer satisfaction. Thus, the purpose of this study was to improve the process of conceptual design using project management concept to reduce the number of redesign in the conceptual design phase for storm drainage design projects. The new conceptual design process was introduced in 4 stages-Initialization, Identification, Translation, and Specification. These stages were clearly defined their input, process (with project management plans, tools and techniques such as checklist, tree diagram, 3D model system and expert judgment), and output.
 
 This was validated with 30 pilot projects of storm drainage design in factories and warehouses. The results revealed that, the total number of redesign was reduced from 102 to 24 under the satisfied of company?s KPI. In addition, the total cost of redesign was decreased form THB 1,326,000 to THB 31,200. Furthermore, the total design time from the start to finish the specification output was reduced from 327 days to 212 days. Therefore, the proposed solution was proved to be practical and fully implemented by the company.

The objective of this research project is the development of a second generation in-duct sorbent injection technology as a cost-effective compliance option for the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Research focused on the Advanced Coolside Process, which has shown the potential of exceeding the performance targets of 90% SO{sub 2} removal and 60% sorbent utilization. In Task 5, Conceptual Process Design and Economic Evaluation, the economics of the CONSOL Advanced Coolside Process as a Clean Air Act compliance option were evaluated. A conceptual process design for full-scale, coal-fired applications is described. Advanced Coolside is compared to conventional Limestone Forced Oxidation (LSFO) wet FGD technology. The process economics for coal sulfur levels ranging from 1.0% to 3.5% (as-received) and plant sizes ranging from 160 to 512 gross MW were investigated, In addition, the economics of on-site versus off-site lime hydration and the cost sensitivity to delivered pebble lime and hydrate prices are investigated, Advanced in-duct sorbent injection enjoys a capital and levelized cost advantage relative to LSFO in all cases examined in this study. As a result of this study and others made during this contract, the following conclusions can be made: (1) The capital cost of Advanced Coolside is 55% to 60% less than that of LSFO and varies slightly depending on coal sulfur content and plant size. (2) The total levelized SO{sub 2} control cost advantage relative to LSFO varies from 15% to 35% over the range of coal sulfur contents and plant sizes evaluated. This cost advantage is sensitive to sorbent transportation charges. As a result, the economics are site-specific. (3) The experimental optimizations based on interim economic analyses were the key to capital and levelized cost reductions.

Industrial best practices of conceptual process design

An integrated approach for selecting design parameters in smart product-service system conceptual design

Technical system design processes are typically based on systems engineering vee models where designers move between functional and physical domains as they develop detailed designs of the overall system and its sub-systems and component parts. The movements between the functional and physical domains are informed by the core activities of any design process: synthesis, description, analysis and simulation, and decision-making. However, delivering socio-technical systems design mindsets, such as those needed to design multi-team systems, requires a new branch of systems science that integrates human behavior into system behavior. Design processes built on such a science would allow system designers to compare alternative solutions in terms of their anticipated performance and consider different options with respect to functions carried out by humans and machines. In this chapter we use a systems design process vee model and apply it to a case study that involves the design of a multi-team customer service system. Both the application of the vee model (i.e., the proposed design process) and the results of its application (i.e., the multi-team customer service system) can be regarded as socio-technical systems and are used to illustrate and elaborate on Clegg’s (Appl Ergon 31(5):463–477, 2000) socio-technical principles for system design. On this basis, we provide a practical framework for designing socio-technical systems and identify requirements for developing future methods and tools to support this process.

Computer-aided conceptual design (CACD) aims to increase efficiency and quality of design work but with little essential progress due to the gap between abstract concept and detailed structure. In order to tackle the problem concerned with conceptual design process and automation, this paper introduces the concept of functional surface as the information carrier to link together product function and structure and describes a product genetic model to represent and organize product information. Functional surface is used to formalize the product gene, a varied-length coding scheme for functional surface and product gene is proposed, and the design process model for conceptual design is established based on product gene. Finally, a prototype system for CACD is introduced to demonstrate how a product can be designed based on the proposed model.

Conceptual design traditionally is accomplished with the lowest fidelity tools available to the design engineer augmented with high fidelity aerodynamics. However decisions made during this relatively short period of time have a very large impact on the life-cycle cost and performance of an aircraft. Historically a configuration and associated outer mold line for a design is selected without considering all the relevant technologies, multi-disciplinary interactions or all the single disciplines that will have an impact on the vehicle. Most methods are focused primarily on the aerodynamics with very low fidelity empirical methods applied to the other disciplines. This paper focuses on a method of bringing multiphysics based analysis forward, into the conceptual design process. The paper will discuss improving the design process to keep more than a single configuration in consideration until they have been evaluated with higher fidelity multi-disciplinary tools. Finally the paper will introduce a new rapid model generation tool being developed within the Air Force Research Lab. The rapid model generator generates aeroelastic models for MSC Nastran, ASTROS and ZAERO. It supports drag prediction from AWAVE for supersonic wave drag and other tools to estimate viscous drag at zero lift conditions. Additionally aerodynamic models for rigid vortex lattice methods are generated to estimate drag polars for use in performance calculations.

After the analysis of design process of mechanical products, the paper pointed out that the structure design is the key of the connection between conceptual design and detail design process. The paper introduced a method that based on conceptual information knowledge unit for structure design of products. It defined knowledge unit and structure unit, and encapsulation of conceptual information into knowledge (structure) unit to realize the information interconnection and drive mechanism from conceptual design to structure design thus making knowledge structure unit become the main carrier representing product design knowledge; expressed design rules and design knowledge based on knowledge units to establish knowledge library of product design; and then expressed different mechanic structure through combination and variation of knowledge (structure) units during the design process to realize product design; finally, analyzed the structure features of multi-cavity injection mold systems (from 1-cavity mold to multi-cavity mold), and expressed the mold structure by knowledge units, based on which the method of multi-cavity plastic injection mold system design was realized.