Capturing simulation intent in an ontology: CAD and CAE integration application

Abstract

Computational simulation is critical in the modern engineering design process. Currently, the use of simulation is limited by the time-consuming process of converting CAD assemblies into FEA models which are efficient to run and yet sufficiently accurate. In addition to the geometric representation of components, analysts require additional knowledge to describe the complete 3D simulation model. To speed up the generation of CAE models from CAD assemblies, we propose to capture high-level modelling and idealisation decisions, characterising the simulation intent, into a knowledge-based CAE model. In this framework, a simulation intent ontology formalises and structures the analysis parameters, the modelling and idealisation decisions. The ontological concepts and relations required to incorporate two of the key capabilities, cellular modelling and equivalencing, are described. Cellular modelling introduces the concept of cells, which subdivide the 3D space, and to which simulation attributes can be attached. Equivalencing maintains the link between different representations of the cells required for different analyses throughout the analysis lifecycle. Illustrative examples show how the knowledge-based CAE model is used to manage the idealisation decisions and to apply inference rules replicating current modelling practices.

Research methods in engineering design: a synthesis of recent studies using a systematic literature review

“…De Lessio et al (2019) present a software tool to support planning and Yang et al (2019) to support manufacturing. Boussuge et al (2019) propose using ontologies to capture high-level modelling and idealisation decisions, characterising the simulations of CAE models from CAD assemblies. Other papers related to ontologies use software to model them (Cheong and Butscher 2019;Hagedorn et al 2019;Wang et al 2019).…”

Knowledge discovery assistants for crash simulations with graph algorithms and energy absorption features

“…Currently, there is no knowledge graph available for the CAE/FE domain nor specifically crash, which is the focus of this paper. However, there are investigations on ontologies for CAD and CAE integration [4], FE simulation [23], and crash analysis [12,13]. In the context of computing, an ontology is a concrete, formal representation of what terms mean within the scope in which they are used (e.g., a given domain).…”

Co-simulation of complex engineered systems enabled by a cognitive twin architecture

“…For the digital entity generating stage of the cosimulation, Boussuge et al (Boussuge et al 2019) proposed a new approach to capture 'simulation intent' as an ontology-based application. The approach is adopted to capture high-level modelling and characterise the simulation intent into a knowledge-based CAE model, accelerating the generation of CAE models from CAD assemblies.…”