Elements of an Emerging Virtual Stochastic Life Cycle Design Environment

Abstract

The challenge of designing next-generation systems that meet goals for system effectiveness, environmental compatibility, and cost has grown to the point that traditional design methodologies are becoming ineffective. Increases in the analysis complexity required, the number of objectives and constraints to be evaluated, and the multitude of uncertainties in today's design problems are primary drivers of this situation. A new environment for design has been formulated to treat this situation. It is viewed as a testbed, in which new techniques in such areas as design-oriented/physics-based analysis, uncertainty modeling, technology forecasting, system synthesis, and decision-making can be posed as hypotheses. Several recent advances in elements of this multidisciplinary environment, termed the Virtual Stochastic Life Cycle Design Environment, are summarized in this paper.

A Bayesian Approach to Non-Deterministic Hypersonic Vehicle Design

“…Coupling of disciplines in hypersonic vehicle design [4] A synthesis and sizing capability takes form as an automated computational environment of integrated disciplinary analysis tools [5]. The term "disciplines" implies both those in the classic engineering sense, such as aerodynamics and propulsion, and the product life-cycle sense, including manufacturing and operations.…”

“…Commencement of the pro- The vehicle simulation capability comprises a series of disciplinary analysis codes, linked to a synthesis and sizing tool (e.g., a trajectory analysis code), and further linked to an economics (with manufacturing) code for lifecycle cost analysis. The linking of codes in this manner creates an automated multidisciplinary simulation environment, an integral part of any probabilistic design effort [5,6]. The disciplinary and economic analysis tools in Figure 2 need not be actual computer programs or experimental databases.…”

A new model for the aerospace design process based on a control system analogy

“…Such models are already under investigation by the authors and their collaborators (Ref. [2], [7]). The use of technologies as compensation for design deviates in a sense from the normal control system environment in that technologies actually change the internal behavior of the plant.…”

“…The approach of type 1 has been and continues to be explored, see specifically Refs. [7] and [13]. In this paper, type 2 will be investigated on the notional carrier-based aircraft example described previously.…”

Development of an Object Oriented Vehicle Library for Automated Design Analysis

“…Breakthrough design methods being developed today center on system modeling and simulation around parametric design space exploration and uncertainty assessments [1][2][3]. These methods rely on the generation of parametric and probabilistic system models through the synthesis of lower-level or disciplinary models whose goal is to capture the essence of a design discipline in a simplified form.…”