Knowledge Management Framework for Design Verification Process With Computer-Aided Engineering Analysis

Computer-based engineering analysis has become an essential means for verifying an engineering design. Its effects depend on not only available computational methods and computer performance but also what models and conditions are given to the computation. Their explicit representation and management must become a forefront and serious task of computer-aided design activities for their better documentation, more appropriate quality assurance, wider utilization, etc. This paper proposes a framework for representing and managing the knowledge involved in engineering analysis modeling for design verification. The computation-based design consists of the two phases, engineering analysis for understanding physical phenomena and design verification based on its results. The management format of the engineering analysis modeling process, which is named EAMM (Engineering Analysis Modeling Matrix), is introduced for the first phase. The process structure of design verification and classification of designer’s decision making are discussed for the second phase by referring the framework of EAMM. gIBIS (graphical Issue-Based Information System) model, which is a format for describing argumentation, is adopted for representing the process structure and the designer’s decision makings. A design process of a micro mixing mechanism demonstrates the potential and the promise of a proposed framework.