Knowledge flow in engineering design: An ontological framework

Abstract

Engineering design is a structured and systematic process of finding solutions to meet certain requirements. Research in this field has focused heavily on developing more effective and efficient product realization process models. Today’s engineering design has become a knowledge intensive and collaborative process, requiring multidisciplinary design knowledge. Therefore, the modeling of knowledge flow plays a key role in determining a successful design alternative, which provides valuable insights into design problems for designers. This article proposes an ontological framework, purpose-function-working space-structure-behavior (PFWSB) for knowledge representation and knowledge flow based design process modeling. An illustrative case is also presented to demonstrate how to use the proposed framework to represent engineering design knowledge and describe the knowledge flow between decision makers during a design process. The results show that this framework can help designers capture the flow of knowledge in engineering design process more effectively.