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EFFICIENT DESIGN EVALUATION THROUGH THE COMBINATION OF NUMERICAL AND PHYSICAL COMPUTATIONS
Foehr, André G. C.; Stuecheli, Marius; Meboldt, Mirko
Type:
Year:
2015
Editor:
Christian Weber, Stephan Husung, Marco CantaMESsa, Gaetano Cascini, Dorian Marjanovic, Serena Graziosi
Author:
Series:
ICED
Institution:
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Section:
Design Methods and Tools - part 2
Page(s):
125-132
ISBN:
978-1-904670-69-8
ISSN:
2220-4334
Abstract:
Over the past decades, the finite element method (FEM) has helped to accelerate design processes. However, when a problem is highly nonlinear, e.g. systems with changing unilateral contacts, numerical methods often struggle or fail completely to solve the design problem. We propose the concept of physical computation (pC) as a tool to help circumvent these numerical problems and thereby accelerate the design process. pC denotes the process of using physical systems to compute the answer to a specific part of a problem, which is hard to solve using numerical or analytical methods. pC complements said methods. Additionally, the use of rapid prototyping (RP) allows to quickly manufacture the pC setups. The application of pC in a design process is shown on the case study of a highly progressive spring. The combination of pC and numerical methods is shown to be efficient in the case study. Based on the results of this case study we see considerable potential to reduce the effort needed for the design evaluation of diverse design problems through the application of the concept of pC.
Keywords:
