Overcoming the challenges of automating and integrating virtual product development processes

Design of complex aerospace products and their manufacturing processes requires the creation of many different computer models representing the designs, at varying levels of fidelity, for multiple engineering domain analyses/simulations. Multiple disparate computational technologies are used in the process. In order to reduce lead-times and enable rapid design search and optimisation, engineers spend significant resources and time automating the creation of geometry and finite element models, integrating these models, and auto executing the various engineering codes. This paper presents a 'common computational' approach to address the challenges of automation and integration and discusses its benefits over traditional approaches.