Interactive Design with Engineering Analysis

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Interactive computer-aided design is critically dependent on the ability to rapidly generate and evaluate numerous design alternatives at all stages of the design process. This is to develop computational foundations, algorithmic infrastructure, and a fully integrated software system for interactive parametric mechanical design with embedded engineering analysis -- that will be performed on demand, fast, concurrently, and transparently. The technology will be demonstrated on a range of typical engineering analysis tasks, including those that are difficult to solve with traditional mesh-based methods. At the core of the technology is a novel method for representing engineering field problems in terms of functions of approximate distance fields to geometric features. The salient feature of the approach is that it allows satisfying all prescribed boundary conditions exactly and without meshing. Furthermore, the approach may be combined with many other traditional techniques, liberating them from dependence on meshing. This unification of geometric design and field modeling in a single conceptual and computational framework should substantially advance the field of computer aided design and engineering. This research holds a potential to transform the way physical fields are modeled, analyzed and simulated -- in design and beyond, in other branches of science and engineering. It also offers a compelling educational framework that can be taught on an undergraduate level, and is already supported by the developed software tools with unprecedented flexibility and ease of use.