Using SysML to Support Impact Analysis on Structural Dynamics Simulation Models

Abstract

Changes during the product development process pose a high risk of unexpected high implementation effort. To reduce this risk, the impact of engineering changes have to be estimated in advance before their implementation. However, in large systems, the numerous interdependencies often create challenges to the approximation of the implementation effort by inducing complex interdependencies which are often not easy to identify from the start.This paper therefore proposes a method to quickly determine change efforts of complex systems. To be able to estimate change efforts, the dependencies between system components have to be mapped together with their corresponding modeling effort (e.g. modeling time). The SysML (System Modeling Language) system model is a powerful tool to support this process as it offers the possibility of a very individual and versatile data storage. Furthermore, specific data (e.g. calculation time) can quickly be identified with algorithm such as “metachain navigation”. We propose in this paper to use a SysML system model for an advanced documentation of the product and construction structure to be carried out in parallel to the modeling process of a system simulation model (in this case finite-element- and multi-body-simulation). Assemblies and associated components are represented by the product structure, while the construction structure represents the force flow between two components. Furthermore, in SysML individual data, e.g. modeling time and calculation time, is stored in an instance that is connected to a specific component or assembly.As a demonstration example, the approach is shown on a structural dynamic analysis of a powertrain with seven subassemblies and over 100 components. Following the proposed method, the effort of a specific component change of the powertrain can be estimated quickly due to the stored data in the system model.