Forging a Geometric Link Between Function-Based Design and DfM

Author(s):  
Manish Verma ◽  
Hui Dong ◽  
William H. Wood

Design for Manufacture (DfM) tends to explore only a small space of possible designs toward improving manufacturability. By focusing primarily on detailed geometry, DfM tends to recommend incremental changes. This paper presents a methodology that begins at the conceptual design stage, applying functional modeling to the generation of design configurations. These functional abstractions are merged with real part geometry toward generating potentially manufacturable design skeletons. The direct connection from function to manufacturable form afforded by this method allows the designer to make better-informed design decisions at the earliest stages of the design process.

Author(s):  
Ihab Ragai ◽  
Harry Tempelman ◽  
David Kirby

This paper deals with the utilization of topology optimization in the design process. Topology optimization is considered the most challenging task in the structural design optimization problems because the general layout of the structure is not known; however, implementing it in the conceptual design stage has proven to reduce the cost and development time. In this paper, the design process is briefly discussed emphasizing the use of topology optimization in the conceptual design stage. Also, the mathematical formulation for topology optimization with material density contours is presented. Furthermore, two industrial case studies, related to off-road mining and construction trucks, are discussed where the use of topology optimization has proven to dramatically improve an existing design and significantly decrease the development time of a new design.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sepehr Abrishami ◽  
Jack Goulding ◽  
Farzad Rahimian

PurposeThe integration and automation of the whole design and implementation process have become a pivotal factor in construction projects. Problems of process integration, particularly at the conceptual design stage, often manifest through a number of significant areas, from design representation, cognition and translation to process fragmentation and loss of design integrity. Whilst building information modelling (BIM) applications can be used to support design automation, particularly through the modelling, amendment and management stages, they do not explicitly provide whole design integration. This is a significant challenge. However, advances in generative design now offer significant potential for enhancing the design experience to mitigate this challenge.Design/methodology/approachThe approach outlined in this paper specifically addresses BIM deficiencies at the conceptual design stage, where the core drivers and indicators of BIM and generative design are identified and mapped into a generative BIM (G-BIM) framework and subsequently embedded into a G-BIM prototype. This actively engages generative design methods into a single dynamic BIM environment to support the early conceptual design process. The developed prototype followed the CIFE “horseshoe” methodology of aligning theoretical research with scientific methods to procure architecture, construction and engineering (AEC)-based solutions. This G-BIM prototype was also tested and validated through a focus group workshop engaging five AEC domain experts.FindingsThe G-BIM prototype presents a valuable set of rubrics to support the conceptual design stage using generative design. It benefits from the advanced features of BIM tools in relation to illustration and collaboration (coupled with BIM's parametric change management features).Research limitations/implicationsThis prototype has been evaluated through multiple projects and scenarios. However, additional test data is needed to further improve system veracity using conventional and non-standard real-life design settings (and contexts). This will be reported in later works.Originality/valueOriginality and value rest with addressing the shortcomings of previous research on automation during the design process. It also addresses novel computational issues relating to the implementation of generative design systems, where, for example, instead of engaging static and formal description of the domain concepts, G-BIM actively enhances the applicability of BIM during the early design stages to generate optimised (and more purposeful) design solutions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 346 ◽  
pp. 03031
Author(s):  
Dmitry Rakov

The article discussed the issues of creating a decision support system in the design process. It is based on morphological methods and approaches. These approaches can be successfully used to accelerate the evaluation, synthesis and selection of engineering solutions at the conceptual design stage. With the help of combinatorics, it is possible to generate a significant number of different engineering solutions. The conceptual stage is the most important in determining the future parameters and characteristics of the designed systems. The article also considers the possibility of computerization of the morphological approach. All this leads to an increase in the efficiency of the design process as a whole.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusheng Chen ◽  
Satyandra K. Gupta ◽  
Shaw Feng

Abstract This paper describes a web-based process/material advisory system that can be used during conceptual design. Given a set of design requirements for a part during conceptual design stage, our system produces process sequences that can meet the design requirements. Quite often during conceptual design stage, design requirements are not precisely defined. Therefore, we allow users to describe design requirements in terms of parameter ranges. Parameter ranges are used to capture uncertainties in design requirements. Our system accounts for uncertainties in design requirements in generating and evaluating process/material combinations. Our system uses a two step algorithm. During the first step, we generate a material/process option tree. This tree represents various process/material options that can be used to meet the given set of design requirements. During the second step, we evaluate various alternative process/material options using a depth first branch and bound algorithm to identify and recommend the least expensive process/material combination to the designer. Our system can be accessed on the World Wide Web using a standard browser. Our system allows designs to consider a wide variety of process/material options during the conceptual design stage and allows them to find the most cost-effective combination. By selecting the process/material combination during the early design stages, designers can ensure that the detailed design is compatible with all of the process constraints for the selected process.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jian Du ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Jinlong Ma ◽  
Yan Xiong ◽  
Wenqiang Li

In the conceptual design stage, inspirational sources play an important role in designers’ creative thinking. This paper proposes a retrieval method for semantic-based inspirational sources, which helps designers obtain inspirational images in the conceptual design stage of emotional design. The core principle involves solving the designer’s own deficiencies in associations and limited knowledge, by bridging the “semantic gap” faced by designers when they use Kansei words for inspirational sources. This method can be divided into two aspects: (1) based on the semantic richness of Kansei words, the first part describes how a lexical ontology for Kansei words called KanseiNet is constructed and proposes a spreading activation mechanism based on KanseiNet to complete the semantic expansion of Kansei words; (2) the second part describes how, using existing semantic techniques, relevant design website resources are crawled and analyzed, images’ context descriptions and Kansei evaluations are extracted, and Kansei evaluation index of inspirational images is established. The KanseiNet for Chinese is first constructed, and the Sources of Inspiration Retrieval System for Emotional Design (SIRSED) is developed. An experiment comparing the existing image retrieval systems with SIRSED proved the latter to be a more comprehensive and accurate way for designers to access inspirational sources.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document