Feature-based Interoperability between Design and Analysis Processes

Nowadays, not only the production but also the design of industrial products is subject to severe constraints in terms of time, quality and delay. In order to satisfy these constraints, it is necessary to efficiently integrate the most recurrent tasks of the design process. For a large majority of mechanical products, the integration of mechanical analysis into the design process is one of the most obvious and crucial requirements, particularly during the early stages of design. This article presents an original model of design and analysis process interoperability, based on the concept of mechanical analysis features and a semantically rich product model. It is intended to support a variety of typical analysis tasks that are frequently required during the mechanical design process. The authors firstly present a brief survey of CAD/analysis integration approaches in order to position their contribution within this domain. Then, a general structure of analysis features is justified by means of experimental results. In order to highlight the modes of interoperability between design and analysis, the authors detail the main characteristics of the product model upon which the design activity is based. This delineation is followed by a formal description of the analysis features, and a proposition for their organisation in feature catalogues. The authors then consider the implementation aspect for these models, and present a scenario illustrating the benefits and current limitations of their approach. The evaluation of the approach is discussed in the conclusion.