A Robust Concept Exploration Method for Configuring Engines

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9612365 Mistree This award provides funding for the research on and implementation of a method for determining initial, top-level specifications of designed-to-order and made-to-order systems such as aircraft, ships, and aircraft engines. The approach will focus on the delineation of regions of design configurations that satisfy design goals but that retain freedom in the design until sufficient information is obtained to pick a single configuration for further design definition. The research approach will bring together existing analysis tools and robust design principles, generally implemented only in later design stages, and incorporate them in the early stages of a product realization time line. Effective application of these tools will be achieved through the integration and implementation of experimental and statistical techniques (design of experiments, analysis of variance, and response surface methodology) and robust design techniques. If successful, the results of this research will enable designers to explore and identify many alternative design configurations and subsequently focus on a single configuration for further analysis and delineation. The resulting method should facilitate cost-effective studies associated with (1) comprehensive design (design from a multidisciplinary, systems perspective), (2) robust design (designs that are relatively insensitive to changes along a product realization time line), (3) flexible design (allow relatively small changes to be examined inexpensively), (4) modifiable design (allow designs to be adapted to large changes in overall requirements cost-effectively). The capability to perform such studies in the early stages of a product realization time line should be of value to both the commercial and defense sectors of US industry.