Evaluating Design Concepts through Functional Model Simulation

Evaluation is a key task in design, and a major goal in computational design is to develop techniques for evaluating designs throughout the design process, starting as early in the process as possible. We describe a computational technique for evaluating design concepts early in conceptual phase of engineering design. Conceptual design in engineering is abstracted as a function to structure mapping and engages the use of functional models of the design concepts. We describe a computational technique called SBFCalc that evaluates design concepts through simulation of their functional models. We demonstrate the capabilities of SBFCalc for evaluating design concepts in biologically inspired engineering design that uses biological analogues to address engineering design problems.