Complexity-based Computer Aided Design

As products become more complex they become more fragile. It is necessary to focus on product robustness by making products less complex. This may be accomplished by using OntoNet™, our QCM Engine.

OntoNet™ allows users to:

Measure the robustness of a design/component
Measure the complexity of a design/component
Identify the drivers of design robustness and complexity
Perform complexity/robustness-based design by plugging it into a commercial PIDO tool.

OntoNet™ is a first-of-a-kind tool. It processes and adds value to data originating from:

Monte Carlo Simulation
DOE, Sensitivity analysis
Optimization
Explicit FE code simulation

PROBLEM: Design a pedestrian bridge having prescribed values of

Mass
Stiffness (first two frequencies)
Mid-deck displacement
Safety factor

… and minimum complexity, i.e. the goal is to determine the simplest design which satisfies constraints and objectives.

The nominal CAD model is shown below. The design variables are the geometric and topological parameters of the model.

OntoNet™ is plugged into a commercial Process Integration Design Optimization (PIDO) tool which uses design complexity as objective function to be minimized. This requires the following steps:

Perturb randomly CAD geometry.
Generate Mesh.
Run FE Solver.
Measure design performance, check constraints.
Continue until lowest complexity is reached.

The above process is illustrated in the figure below:

A few hundred iterations are executed, yielding a family of nearly 40 feasible solutions. All satisfy performance requirements and constraints. All have nearly identical performance. Which one is best?