A similarity-assisted multi-fidelity approach to conceptual design space exploration
Journal article, 2023

In conceptual design studies engineers typically utilize data-based surrogate models to enable rapid evaluation of design objectives that otherwise would be too computationally expensive and time-consuming to simulate. Due to the computationally expensive simulations, the data-based surrogate models are often trained using small sample sizes, resulting in low-fidelity models which can produce results that are not trustworthy. To mitigate this issue, a similarity-assisted design space exploration method is proposed. The similarity is measured between design points that have been evaluated through lower-fidelity data-based surrogate models and design points that have been evaluated using higher-fidelity physics-based simulations. This similarity information can then be used by design engineers to better understand the trustworthiness of the data produced by the low-fidelity surrogate models. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that such a similarity measurement can be used as an indicator of the trustworthiness of the lower-fidelity model predictions. Moreover, a second similarity metric is proposed for measuring the similarity of new designs to legacy designs, thus highlighting the potential to reuse knowledge, analysis models, and data. The proposed method is demonstrated by means of an aero-engine structural component conceptual design study. An open-source software tool developed to assist in data visualization is also presented.

Design space exploration

Aero-engine structures

Design support

Engineering design

Similarity metrics

Author

Julian Martinsson Bonde

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Michael Kokkolaras

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Petter Andersson

GKN Aerospace Sweden

Massimo Panarotto

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Ola Isaksson

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Computers in Industry

0166-3615 (ISSN)

Vol. 151 103957

Development of efficient DIgital product FAMily design platform to increase cost efficiency - DIFAM

VINNOVA (2019-02756), 2019-10-01 -- 2022-12-31.

GKN Aerospace Sweden, 2019-10-01 -- 2022-12-31.

Development of Interdisciplinary Assessment for manufacturing and deSign (DIAS)

European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/887174), 2020-06-01 -- 2023-02-28.

Development of efficient DIgital product FAMily design platform to increase cost efficiency - DIFAM

GKN Aerospace Sweden, 2019-10-01 -- 2022-12-31.

VINNOVA (2019-02756), 2019-10-01 -- 2022-12-31.

Subject Categories

Mechanical Engineering

Aerospace Engineering

Computer Science

DOI

10.1016/j.compind.2023.103957

More information

Latest update

6/29/2023