A framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry

This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies.     

先进复合材料与航空航天

复合化是新材料的重要发展方向, 先进复合材料已经成为航空航天结构的基本材料之一。本文中阐述了先进复合材料在航空航天领域的应用需求和现状, 介绍了诸如点阵、 纳米、 多功能复合材料与结构等研发热点和前沿技术, 并讨论了其研发与应用趋势。最后, 重点讨论了复合材料的原材料技术、 低成本技术、 设计/评价一体化技术等亟待解决的问题。      

先进复合材料在航空航天领域的研发与应用

先进复合材料以其比强度比模量高、耐高温性能好、耐疲劳性能优越等独特优点获得广泛应用和迅速发展.为了解当前先进复合材料在航空航天领域的应用发展现状,并促进我国航空航天用先进复合材料技术的发展,从材料、制备工艺技术、国内外发展形势等角度对先进复合材料在航空航天领域的研发及应用进展进行了全面系统的回顾与总结,并探讨了今后的发展与研究方向,以供该领域工程人员参考.     

Integrated computational chemistry system for catalysts design

The understanding of valuable catalytic and adsorptive properties of heterogeneous catalysts at atomic and electronic levels is essential for the design of novel catalysts. Computer simulation studies can significantly contribute to provide a rational interpretation of the observed experimental results and suggest modification of new catalysts. Our recent work on the application of integrated computer simulation methods to investigate the structure and catalytic properties of solid surfaces including zeolites, transition metals and their oxides have been reviewed in this paper. We have emphasized the effectivity and applicability of integrated computer simulation system to solve the problems in a variety of targets of industrial and academic importance.     

Composite materials for aerospace applications

Fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials are fast gaining ground as preferred materials for construction of aircraft and spacecraft. In particular, their use as primary structural materials in recent years in several technology-demonstrator front-line aerospace projects world-wide has provided confidence leading to their acceptance as prime materials for aerospace vehicles. This paper gives a review of some of these developments with a discussion of the problems with the present generation composites and prospects for further developments. Although several applications in the aerospace sector are mentioned, the emphasis of the review is on applications of composites as structural materials where they have seen a significant growth in usage. The focus of the paper is especially on the developments on the Indian aerospace scene. A brief review of composites usage in aerospace sector is first given. The nature of composite materials behaviour and special problems in designing and working with them are then highlighted. The issues discussed relate to the impact damage and damage tolerance in general, environmental degradation and long-term durability. Current solutions are briefly described and the scope for new developments is outlined. In the end, some directions for future work are given.     

集成化运输包装设计系统

介绍了集成化运输包装设计系统的需求,提出了系统模型,基于此模型分析和研究了各个模块的设计流程。设计的集成化运输包装系统可以完成产品的缓冲设计、纸箱设计和托盘设计,并对方案进行组合、优化和优选。设计了系统数据库,提出了系统总体设计流程。     

Integrated planning for product module selection and assembly line design/reconfiguration

To take full advantage of product modularity, modular product design and assembly system design/sreconfiguration have to be simultaneously addressed. The emerging reconfigurable production and flexible assembly techniques have made such an integrated approach possible. As such, this paper proposes an integrated approach to product module selection and assembly line design/reconfiguration problems. It further suggests that quality loss functions be used in a generic sense to quantify non-comparable and possibly conflicting performance criteria involved in the integrated problem. The complexity of the problem precludes the use of commercial software for solving meaningful sized problems in polynomial time. A genetic algorithm is therefore developed to provide quick solutions. An example problem is solved to illustrate the application of the proposed approach. Based on 72 randomly generated test problems, ANOVA analysis is further carried out to investigate the effects of genetic algorithm parameters. The convergence behaviour of the search processes is also examined by solving large problems with different numbers of operations and product modules.     

板料冲压成形快速分析软件FASTAMP

基于先进的有限元逆算法研制开发了具有独立版权的板料冲压成形快速分析软件FASTAMP,与传统的增量法CAE软件有很大的区别,可以进行快速的优化设计和成形性模拟,主要面向产品设计、工艺设计与模具设计人员.该软件具有一套完整的、独立的前后处理系统,其中包括标准的CAD数据接口、曲面编辑和曲面网格生成器.     

基于模拟试验法的离散公差稳健设计

 在分析计算机辅助公差设计技术的研究现状的基础上，提出了基于模拟试验法的离散公差稳健设计方法．在该方法中将加工成本与质量损失作为两个独立的目标函数，从而建立离散公差优化设计模型，采用试验设计法和CP方法相结合的技术实现公差的稳健设计，最后用实例证明该方法的可行性．     

Integrated circuits for submarine communication systems,their design and development

Digital optical systems represent the current advance in submarine communications. Modern system designs require rapid evaluation of new components without relaxation of the stringent reliability requirements demanded for submarine applications. This article describes the development of integrated circuits (ICs) for submarine use. It goes on to show the design methodology, and discusses some limitations and the demanding reliability assurance aspects. The current IC designs are being used in both long-haul and short-haul links. The technology discussed is providing a major role in the future development of high-capacity optical submarine systems.     

Conceptual design of industrial systems: an approach to support collaboration

The design of any industrial system is a complex problem where many domains are involved. Each domain developed its own way of modeling based on a mono disciplinary perception. This leads to a communication problem and consequently to expectations on the formulated solution that do not correspond with the real solution. To enable the communication between domains and to preserve the match between intentions, expectations and reality of the system to be designed, a combination of a soft and hard systems approach is used to define a Conceptual model for Industrial Systems (CIS). The use of the model during design is illustrated for the technical domain, but has proven to be applicable for the organization and information domain as well.     

Game-theory approach for multi-objective optimal design of stationary flat-plate solar collectors

A game-theory approach has been used for the multi-objective optimum design of stationary flat-plate solar collectors. The clear-day solar-beam radiation and diffuse radiation at the location of the solar collector (Miami) are estimated. Three objectives are considered in the optimization-problem formulation: maximization of the annual average incident solar energy; maximization of the lowest month incident solar energy; and minimization of costs. The game-theory methodology is used for the solution of the three objective-constrained optimization problems to find a balanced solution. This solution represents the best compromise in terms of the super-criterion selected. Two types of sensitivity analyses are conducted on the optimum solution in this work. The sensitivity analysis with respect to the design variables indicates which design valuables are more important to different objective functions. The sensitivity analysis with respect to the solar constant shows that small fluctuations of solar constant experienced in practice affect the various objectives very little, thereby indicating that the mathematical model is robust. This work represents the first work aimed at the application of multi-objective optimization strategy, particularly the game theory approach, for the solution of the solar collector design problem.     

Fixture design information support for integrated design and manufacturing

Although a vast amount of research has been conducted on developing computer-aided fixture design systems, the need for information exchange between the fixture design domain and other manufacturing domains has not been thoroughly dealt with. This paper addresses this gap in fixture design research through the development of appropriate information models for computer-aided fixture design systems to support integrated design and manufacturing. A fixture design activity model is presented that relates fixture design to other design and manufacturing activities. The implementation of the information models in XML and the exchange of the information models based on an XML messaging approach are also discussed.     

Unexpected discoveries and S-invention of design requirements: important vehicles for a design process

Designers, during a conceptual design process, do not just synthesize solutions that satisfy initially given requirements, but also invent design issues or requirements that capture important aspects of the given problem. How do they do this? What becomes the impetus for the invention of important issues or requirements? So-called ‘unexpected discoveries', the acts of attending to visuo-spatial features in sketches which were not intended when they were drawn, are believed to contribute to it. The purpose of the present research is to verify this hypothesis. Analysing the cognitive processes of a practising architect in a design session, we found that in about a half of his entire design process there were bi-directional relations between unexpected discoveries and the invention of issues or requirements. Not only did unexpected discoveries become the driving force for the invention of issues or requirements, but also the occurrence of invention, in turn, tended to cause new unexpected discoveries. This has provided empirical evidence for two anecdotal views of designing. First, designing is a situated act; designers invent design issues or requirements in a way situated in the environment in which they design. We call inventions of this sort situated-invention (S-invention). Secondly, a design process progresses in such a way that the problem-space and the solution-space co-evolve. Further, this has brought a pedagogical implication as well as an insight about an important aspect of learning by experience in design.     

Production planning optimisation for composite aerospace manufacturing

Composite materials proved highly successful for aerospace applications in the last decades, but increased cost pressure forces the composite industry to become more efficient. This requires new manufacturing technologies and optimised processes as raw material costs and labour costs are basically fixed when wanting to keep production on site. Probably the most defining process for aerospace composite production is manual layup of prepreg material with subsequent curing in an autoclave. From production planning view, this combination poses the challenge of transition from discrete layup manufacturing to batch curing processing with the restriction of limited allowed storage time of the prepreg material prior to cure. In this paper, a new approach for production order optimisation at the conjunction of discrete and batch processing is presented. The APOLLO named tool is designed to decrease throughput times, streamline production and increase autoclave utilisation in the composite aerospace industry.     

A distributed approximation approach for solving the sustainable supply chain network design problem

This paper introduces a comprehensive Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for a sustainable supply chain network design problem, and an efficient Distributed Approximation Approach (DAA) to solve it approximately. We study a multi-echelon, multi-product and multi-modal supply chain with different transportation modes. Besides relevant costs in the supply chain such as procurement, production and distribution cost, we also explicitly consider the environmental footprint, represented by carbon emissions and water consumption from production and transportation. The approximation approach is a decomposition-based method. First, the original problem is divided into a partner selection sub-problem and a transportation planning sub-problem. Then multiple filter mechanisms are used to remove potentially infeasible solutions, and an approximate value of the objective function is calculated for each of the remaining solutions to perform a further selection. The one with the lowest approximation is chosen to be applied with a branch-and-bound method. Finally, the algorithm is paralleled and implemented in Apache Spark distributed computing framework to further improve efficiency. Experimental results show that the proposed DAA can provide high quality solutions compared to the optimal solutions of the MILP model with mostly a negligible relative gap and solve large instances in much shorter time than CPLEX. Moreover, in our numerical study, we also compare the results of our model with another version of the model that does not take the environmental footprint into consideration. The results show that explicitly incorporating environmental footprint results in a substantial decrease of CO₂ emissions and water consumption at a negligible cost increase. This insight may be of interest to managers and other decision makers and policy makers.     

Mesh generation for aerospace applications

In recent years there has been much research activity in the field of compressible flow simulation for aerodynamic applications. In the 1970’s and 1980’s the advances in the numerical solution of the Full Potential and Euler equations made, in principle, the inviscid flow simulation around complex aerodynamic shapes possible. At this stage much attention was focused on methods capable of generating meshes on which such calculations could be performed. In this paper an overview is presented of some techniques which have been developed to generate meshes for aerospace applications. Structured mesh generation techniques are discussed and their application to complicated shapes utilising the multiblock approach is highlighted. Unstructured mesh generation methods are also discussed with particular emphasis given to the Delaunay triangulation method. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the structured and unstructured approaches are discussed and new work is presented which attempts to utilise both these approaches in an efficient and flexible manner. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Fixed-point algorithms for optimal ascent trajectories of launch vehicles

A fixed-point formulation and the associated algorithms for rapid generation of optimal ascent trajectories of launch vehicles through the atmosphere are presented. The complete ascent trajectory is tacitly divided into an endo-atmospheric and an exo-atmospheric portion. Since the exo-atmospheric trajectory can be obtained reliably and rapidly, a special form of two-point boundary value problem (TPBVP) is formulated in the endo-atmospheric portion. This special TPBVP leads to a sequence of nested fixed-point problems. Several algorithmic options to solve these problems using modified fixed-point iterations are discussed. The main advantages of the fixed-point formulation and algorithm are software simplicity and more robust convergence. Numerical results, both in open-loop trajectory generation and closed-loop simulations, are presented to demonstrate the discussions. The algorithm is validated and verified by comparing the results with the results obtained from existing method.     

Methods and considerations for the development of emerging manufacturing technologies into a global aerospace supply chain

Global aerospace manufacturing has resulted in a direct need for the development of new manufacturing techniques and machines. These emerging technologies require a specific approach to technology, supplier and enterprise communication development. However, a global strategy for aerospace supply-chains is difficult to develop, specifically for new manufacturing technologies. Within large aerospace companies, it is challenging to assess emerging technologies with respect to manufacturing readiness level and risk. The research provided discusses a technique used to assess risk coupled with manufacturing readiness level maturation for emerging technologies using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Developing customer requirements for a new manufacturing technology is challenging when multiple customers exist for the proposed technology. Technology experts are found within the company and executive champions are solicited to assist in sponsoring the emerging technology. This research covers proven heuristics developed for marketing the emerging technology throughout the aerospace enterprise. Also, the experience level of the supplier to adopt the emerging technology acts as a critical element in defining a deployment strategy within the aerospace company. Once manufacturing technologies are developed, communicating the emerging technology is necessary. Supplier involvement, supply chain flexibility, and enterprise communication strategies are highlighted with respect to a global supply-chain for aerospace.     

Robust optimal-parameter design approach for tolerance design problems

A robust optimal-parameter design method, henceforth called the TGAOA, to solve tolerance design problems has been investigated. Tolerance affects system performance and leads to violation of design constraints. The TGAOA approach conducts global exploration by using a genetic algorithm and exploits optimal offspring via the Taguchi method. It is able to effectively reduce the impact of parameter variations in reaching robust optimal-solutions as allowed by the tolerance. Two design examples are employed to evaluate the performance of the new method. The first is for a mixed H₂/H_∞ optimal PID controller under varying PID component specifications, plant uncertainty, and other external unknown disturbance. The second involves a 13-variable test function, which includes quadratic, linear, and polynomial forms to illustrate the general robustness and computational efficiency, for which comparisons are also made with its predecessors of genetic algorithm and hybrid Taguchi-genetic algorithm.