Interdisciplinary and multilevel optimum design

Abstract

Interactions among engineering disciplines and subsystems in engineering system design are surveyed and specific instances of such interactions are described. Examination of the interactions that a traditional design process in which the numerical values of major design variables are decided consecutively is likely to lead to a suboptimal design. Supporting numerical examples are a glider and a space antenna. Under an alternative approach introduced, the design and its sensitivity data from the subsystems and disciplines are generated concurrently and then made available to the system designer enabling him to modify the system design so as to improve its performance. Examples of a framework structure and an airliner wing illustrate that approach.