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Design-Analysis Integration Research

I have more than enough to do than to extract my own FEA data. I am talking to manufacturing, tooling, vendors, fatigue and fractures, the stress group - I simply don't have time.
Design Engineer, Airplane Structures [Liker, et al., 1992]

This quote typifies the frustrations often caused by the gulf between today's CAD and CAE tools. This problem is exacerbated by analysis tools that are not designed for casual users. Can design engineers efficiently utilize CAE without becoming tool experts? What technological advances are needed?

With the goal of bridging the gap between engineering design and analysis, design-analysis integration (DAI) is a major thrust in our analysis theory and methodology (ATM) program. X-analysis integration (XAI) is a generalization of DAI, where X represents other lifecycle models to enable their simulation-based improvement (e.g., manufacturing processes, maintentance & repair, and environmental sustainability).

We are conducting research in the following areas:

  • Analyzable product models (APMs), including representation of idealization knowledge and usage of open standards like STEP and SysML.
  • Simulation knowledge templates, including the multi-representation architecture (MRA), context-based analysis models (CBAMs), and representation of design-analysis associativity
  • Automation of ubiquitous analysis
  • Engineering frameworks
  • Design optimization
  • Parametric finite element analysis

For further information, please see:

Fundamentally, we view XAI as an information-intensive engineering problem due to the many types of representations involved and the complexity of their inner mappings. Hence, our approaches often employ non-traditional computational techniques such as objects and constraints. Techniques are highly modular, providing plug-and-play capabilities across diverse product domains, disciplines, and tools. Applications to date include electronic packaging thermal and thermomechnical analysis (PWAs, PWBs, chip packages) and mechanical and airframe stuctural analysis.

We hope you find our Web pages useful. Comments and questions are welcome to Russell Peak or any of the researchers directly.