scholarly journals Understanding design change propagation in complex engineering systems using a digital twin and design structure matrix

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Chen ◽  
Jennifer Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Change Propagation ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Design Change ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Complex Engineering Systems

PurposeAs the engineering design process becomes increasingly complex, multidisciplinary teams need to work together, integrating diverse expertise across a range of disciplinary models. Where changes arise, these design teams often find it difficult to handle these design changes due to the complexity and interdependencies inherent in engineering systems. This paper aims to develop an innovative approach to clarifying system interdependencies and predicting the design change propagation at the asset level in complex engineering systems based on the digital-twin-driven design structure matrix (DSM).Design/methodology/approachThe paper first defines the digital-twin-driven DSM in terms of elements and interdependencies, where the authors have defined three types of interdependency, namely, geospatial, physical and logical, at the asset level. The digital twin model was then used to generate the large-scale DSMs of complex engineering systems. The cluster analysis was further conducted based on the improved Idicula–Gutierrez–Thebeau algorithm (IGTA-Plus) to decompose such DSMs into modules for the convenience and efficiency of predicting design change propagation. Finally, a design change propagation prediction method based on the digital-twin-driven DSM has been developed by integrating the change prediction method (CPM), a load-capacity model and fuzzy linguistics. A section of an infrastructure mega-project in London was selected as a case study to illustrate and validate the developed approach.FindingsThe digital-twin-driven DSM has been formally defined by the spatial algebra and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema. Based on the definitions, an innovative approach has been further developed to (1) automatically generate a digital-twin-driven DSM through the use of IFC files, (2) to decompose these large-scale DSMs into modules through the use of IGTA-Plus and (3) predict the design change propagation by integrating a digital-twin-driven DSM, CPM, a load-capacity model and fuzzy linguistics. From the case study, the results showed that the developed approach can help designers to predict and manage design changes quantitatively and conveniently.Originality/valueThis research contributes to a new perspective of the DSM and digital twin for design change management and can be beneficial to assist designers in making reasonable decisions when changing the designs of complex engineering systems.

scholarly journals Conceptual framework of a digital twin to evaluate the degradation status of complex engineering systems

Procedia CIRP ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 61-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide D’Amico ◽  
John Ekoyuncu ◽  
Sri Addepalli ◽  
Christopher Smith ◽  
Ed Keedwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Complex Engineering Systems

The research of the decomposition‐coordination method of multidisciplinary collaboration design optimization

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjiang Chen ◽  
Yifang Zhong ◽  
Renbin Xiao ◽  
Jianxun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Design Optimization ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Optimum ◽  
Engineering Problem ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Decomposition Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complex Design ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann

PurposeTo obtain the global optimum of large‐scale complex engineering systems, the paper proposes a decomposition‐coordination method of multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO).Design/methodology/approachA rational decomposition approach based on artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithms is proposed for partitioning the complex design problem into smaller, more tractable subsystems. Once the problem is decomposed into subsystems, each subsystem may be solved in parallel provided that there is some mechanism to coordinate the solutions in the different subsystems. So the response surface approximation model based on the ANN as a coordination method is described and a MDO framework is presented.FindingsThe proposed method was implemented in the design of a tactical missile. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the decomposition‐coordination method, as indicated by both better performance and lower computational requirements.Originality/valueThis paper adopts a novel MDO method to solve complex engineering problem and offers a potential and efficient MDO framework to researchers.

Effectiveness Of Life Cycle Management Of Projects Using Information Modeling

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-29 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Life Cycle Management ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Domestic Practices ◽  
Capital Construction ◽  
Complex Engineering Systems

Improving the efficiency of life cycle management of capital construction projects using information modeling technologies is one of the important tasks of the construction industry. The paper presents an analysis of accumulated domestic practices, including the legal and regulatory framework, assessing the effectiveness of managing the implementation of investment construction projects and of complex and serial capital construction projects, as well as the life cycle management of especially dangerous technically complex and unique capital construction projects using information modeling technologies, especially capital construction projects, as well as their supporting and using systems, primarily in the nuclear and transport sectors. A review of modern approaches to assessing the effectiveness of life cycle management systems of complex engineering systems in relation to capital construction projects is carried out. The presented material will make it possible to formulate the basic principles and prospects of applying approaches to assessing the effectiveness of the life cycle management system of a capital construction project using information modeling technologies.

Design of Complex Engineering Systems Using Multiagent Coordination

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás F. Soria ◽  
Mitchell K. Colby ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer ◽  
Christopher Hoyle ◽  
Kagan Tumer
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Coordination Problem ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Multiagent Coordination ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Potential System ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
System States ◽  
Complex Engineering Systems

In complex engineering systems, complexity may arise by design, or as a by-product of the system’s operation. In either case, the root cause of complexity is the same: the unpredictable manner in which interactions among components modify system behavior. Traditionally, two different approaches are used to handle such complexity: (i) a centralized design approach where the impacts of all potential system states and behaviors resulting from design decisions must be accurately modeled; and (ii) an approach based on externally legislating design decisions, which avoid such difficulties, but at the cost of expensive external mechanisms to determine trade-offs among competing design decisions. Our approach is a hybrid of the two approaches, providing a method in which decisions can be reconciled without the need for either detailed interaction models or external mechanisms. A key insight of this approach is that complex system design, undertaken with respect to a variety of design objectives, is fundamentally similar to the multiagent coordination problem, where component decisions and their interactions lead to global behavior. The design of a race car is used as the case study. The results of this paper demonstrate that a team of autonomous agents using a cooperative coevolutionary algorithm can effectively design a Formula racing vehicle.

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