Computer Aided Analysis of Functional Couplings in Structural Axiomatic Design

Abstract

Abstract Creating product structure models is an important task in design, as different such models are needed during the product design process. Depending on what theoretical model or methodology for product design that is used during the process, structure models of different kinds are developed. In structural axiomatic design, functional requirement structure models and physical solution structure models are essential. These are hierarchial tree structure models which are developed during the process by zigzagging between the functional domain and the physical solution domain from the highest to the lowest hierarchical structure level. While doing this, functional couplings, making it harder to fulfill a certain functional requirement without affecting others, are built into the structure. The theory of axiomatic design provides tools to identify such couplings. In this work, the so called design equation in the axiomatic design theory, has been given a graphical interpretation. This has made it possible to use a computer based structure modeling tool, with a graphic user interface, to directly identify and analyze functional couplings in the structure model on the graphical screen.