scholarly journals Progress and Challenges in Generative Product Design: A Review of Systems

Computers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
James Mountstephens ◽  
Jason Teo

Design is a challenging task that is crucial to all product development. Advances in design computing may allow machines to move from a supporting role to generators of design content. Generative Design systems produce designs by algorithms and offer the potential for the exploration of vast design spaces, the fostering of creativity, the combination of objective and subjective requirements, and the revolutionary integration of conceptual and detailed design phases. The application of generative methods to the design of discrete, physical, engineered products has not yet been reviewed. This paper reviews the Generative Product Design systems developed since 1998 in order to identify significant approaches and trends. Systems are analyzed according to their primary goal, generative method, the design phase they focus on, whether the generation is automatic or interactive, the number of design options they generate, and the types of design requirements involved in the generation process. Progress using this approach is recognized, and a number of challenges that must be addressed in order to achieve widespread acceptance are identified. Possible solutions are offered, including innovative approaches in Human–Computer Interaction.

Author(s):  
Dominik B. Schwinn

The design process of new air- and rotorcraft is commonly separated into three different consecutive phases. In the conceptual design phase, the viability of different designs is investigated with respect to customer requirements and/or the market situation. It usually ends with the identification of a basic aircraft lay-out. In the subsequent preliminary design stage the various disciplines are introduced, thus redefining the design process as a multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) task. The objective of this design stage is to enhance the initial aircraft configuration by establishing an advanced design comprising a loft provided with primary structure. This updated aircraft configuration represents a global optimum solution for the specified requirements which will then be optimized on a local level in the concluding detailed design phase with particular regard to manufacturing aspects. The investigations in the preliminary design phase comprise the generation of numerous similar but still different analytical and finite element (FE) models. Even though computational power is constantly increasing the model generation process is still a time-consuming task. Moreover, it is also a potential source of errors which — in the worst case — may lead to time- and cost-intensive redesign activities during the detailed design. As the preliminary design stage, therefore, is of particular importance during the overall design process the model generation process benefits from parametric models and automated process chains. The presented paper overviews the tools used for the automated generation of FE models developed and used at the Institute of Structures and Design (BT) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for the subsequent use in numerical simulations. Furthermore, basic requirements for the effective use of parametrization and automation like a common data format and infrastructure will be introduced. Exemplary models and applications will be presented to illustrate the positive impact on efficiency in aircraft design. Concluding, future development steps and possible applications will be discussed.


Author(s):  
Daniel Krus ◽  
Katie Grantham Lough

When designing a product, the earlier the potential risks can be identified, the more costs can be saved, as it is easier to modify a design in its early stages. Several methods exist to analyze the risk in a system, but all require a mature design. However, by applying the concept of “common interfaces” to a functional model and utilizing a historical knowledge base, it is possible to analyze chains of failures during the conceptual phase of product design. This paper presents a method based on these “common interfaces” to be used in conjunction with other methods such as Risk in Early Design in order to allow a more complete risk analysis during the conceptual design phase. Finally, application of this method is demonstrated in a design setting by applying it to a thermal control subsystem.


Author(s):  
R. J. Engel ◽  
P. J. Tyler ◽  
L. R. Wood ◽  
D. T. Entenmann

Westinghouse has been a strong supporter of Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) principles during product design and development. This is exemplified by the actions taken during the design of the 501F engine to ensure that high reliability and availability was achieved. By building upon past designs, utilizing those features most beneficial, and improving other areas, a highly reliable product was developed. A full range of RAM tools and techniques were utilized to achieve this result, including reliability allocations, modelling, and effective redesign of critical components. These activities began during the conceptual design phase and will continue throughout the life cycle of these engines until they are decommissioned.


2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (18) ◽  
pp. 5660-5684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinjun Lai ◽  
Qixiang Zhang ◽  
Qingxin Chen ◽  
Yunbao Huang ◽  
Ning Mao ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Li

The selection of a design for the given product is a critical problem in product design development. Focuses of the designers and customers on the design are not identical. In order to bridge the gap and provide a more relaxing way to select the design, a new method based on quality function deployment (QFD) is proposed. In such a method, customers are required to give their linguistic preferences on the design with respect to the customer requirements (CRs). In the rating of the weight of CRs, they are allowed to provide incomplete linguistic weight information and the objective optimization model is proposed to derive the exact linguistic weight information. Designers are required to rate the correlation between design requirements (DRs) and the relationship between the CRs and DRs to construct the house of quality. Opinions given by the customers are translated into the opinions with respect to the DRs based on the QFD. Afterwards, the priorities of the designs and design requirements are determined. The assessment results not only show the contribution of each design requirement to the customer satisfaction but also show the advantages and disadvantages of each design from the designers’ perspective clearly and directly. An example is provided to validate the applicability of the proposed method.


1972 ◽  
Vol 9 (02) ◽  
pp. 205-215
Author(s):  
william G. Bullock ◽  
Frank D. Yonika

This paper is a summary of a report prepared by the Office of Ship Construction to provide a base reference document from which a detailed design for an automated steam propulsion plant will be developed for unattended engine room operation. As the design details are developed, it may be anticipated that some of the concepts and preliminary design requirements discussed herein may be modified and/or changed to reflect these developments. It should also be noted that the concepts and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Maritime Administration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 203-258
Author(s):  
Sandra L. Furterer
Keyword(s):  
Phase 3 ◽  

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