ABSTRACT ONTOLOGIES AND METHODS FOR INTEROPERABILITY OF ENGINEERING ANALYSIS MODELS (EAMS) IN AN E-DESIGN ENVIRONMENT SEPTEMBER 2007 NEELIMA KANURI, B.S., BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCES PILANI INDIA M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Ian Grosse Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems to exchange and reuse information efficiently. This thesis presents new techniques for interoperating engineering tools using ontologies as the basis for representing, visualizing, reasoning about, and securely exchanging abstract engineering knowledge between software systems. The specific engineering domain that is the primary focus of this report is the modeling knowledge associated with the development of engineering analysis models (EAMs). This abstract modeling knowledge has been used to support integration of analysis and optimization tools in iSIGHT FD , a commercial engineering environment. ANSYS , a commercial FEA tool, has been wrapped as an analysis service available inside of iSIGHT-FD. Engineering analysis modeling (EAM) ontology has been developed and instantiated to form a knowledge base for representing analysis modeling knowledge. The instances of the knowledge base are the analysis models of real world applications. To illustrate how abstract modeling knowledge can be exploited for useful purposes, a cantilever I-Beam design optimization problem has been used as a test bed proof-of-concept application. Two distinct finite element models of the I-beam are available to analyze a given beam design- a beam-element finite element model with potentially lower accuracy but significantly reduced computational costs and a high fidelity, high cost, shell-element finite element model. The goal is to obtain an optimized I-beam design at minimum computational expense. An intelligent KB tool was developed and implemented in FiPER . This tool reasons about the modeling knowledge to intelligently shift between the beam and the shell element models during an optimization process to select the best analysis model for a given optimization design state. In addition to improved interoperability and design optimization, methods are developed and presented that demonstrate the ability to operate on ontological knowledge bases to perform important engineering tasks. One such method is the automatic technical report generation method which converts the modeling knowledge associated with an analysis model to a flat technical report. The second method is a secure knowledge sharing method which allocates permissions to portions of knowledge to control knowledge access and sharing. Both the methods acting together enable recipient specific fine grain controlled knowledge viewing and sharing in an engineering workflow integration environment, such as iSIGHT-FD. These methods together play a very efficient role in reducing the large scale inefficiencies existing in current product design and development cycles due to poor knowledge sharing and reuse between people and software engineering tools. This work is a significant advance in both understanding and application of integration of knowledge in a distributed engineering design framework.

Methyl Viologen (MV) is an electron mediator that has great possibilities to be used with an electrode system in which the electrode system provides electrons towards reducing MV species. MV has three redox states and they can be converted to each other via redox reactions on the surface of the electrode. The concentration of the three species of MV was related to the voltage potential applied to the system through a thermodynamic model. With the thermodynamic model the concentration of the three species can be predicted with different applied voltage potentials towards providing guidance for controlling the redox state of MV in a system. The kinetic rates of MV reduction were also assessed using a preliminary kinetic model. The kinetic model predicted all three species concentration changes with time although only the MV+ concentration was measured with time. Analysis revealed that the rate of MV reduction was three orders of magnitude slower than the rate of electrons required for bioethanol production. However, increasing the affinity of MV+ on the surface and blocking the H+ on the surface potentially can increase the reduction rate of MV by up to three orders of magnitude and can potentially enable MV to be used in commercial applications. As for the efficiency study, the coloumbic efficiency was less than 22% which was much lower than the efficiency of more than 85% observed in other studies for the direct electron transfer between electrode and bio organism. The efficiency was lowered mainly by the reduction of H+ and minimizing H+ on the electrode can largely increase the efficiency. Medium used for cell growth can also affect the efficiency through medium species consuming electrons provided by the electrode. Electron mediators, such as MV, have potential promise in applications such as microbial fuel cells, biofuel formation, and waste water treatment. However, engineering analysis of electron mediators is critical to provide better engineering control, design, and economic analysis for future applications.

Monitoring, diagnosis and prediction of failures play key roles in automatic supervision of machine tools. They have received much attention because of the potential for reduced maintenance expenses, down time, and an increase in the equipment utilization level. At present, signal analysis techniques are predominantly used. But methods involving system analysis are capable of providing more reliable information, especially for predictive applications of supervision. System analysis involves comprehensive analytical models combined with techniques developed in control theory, and experimental modal analysis. The primary objective of this research is to develop a methodology to monitor critical physical parameters of mechanical systems, which are difficult to measure directly. These parameters are inherent features of constitutive rigid body models. A method for computer aided model generation developed in this thesis leads to a gray box model structure by which physical parameters can be estimated from experimental data. Lagrange's energy formalism, linear algebra and homogenous transformations are used to promote parsimonious three-dimensional model building. A software environment allowing symbolic and arbitrary precision computations facilitates efficient mapping of physical properties of the actual system into specific quantities of the analytical model. Six different methods are postulated and analyzed in this thesis to estimate physical parameters such as masses, stiffnesses and damping coefficients. Implementation of this methodology is a prerequisite for the design of an on-line monitoring and diagnosis system, which can detect and predict process faults. Two mechanical systems are used to validate the proposed methods: (1) A simple multi degree-of-freedom (MDOF) system and (2) a machine tool spindle assembly. A practical application of physical parameter estimation is proposed for preload monitoring in high-speed spindles. Preload variations in the bearing can lead to thermal instability and bearing seizure. The feasibility of using accelerometers located on the spindle housing to estimate bearing preload is evaluated. The optimal environment for continuation of this research is collaboration with machine tool companies to incorporate the proposed methodology (or parts of it) into current design practices. / Graduation date: 1999

In this thesis, we develop two exact algorithms and a heuristic procedure for Multiobjective Combinatorial Optimization Problems (MOCO). Our exact algorithms guarantee to generate all nondominated solutions of any MOCO problem. We test the performance of the algorithms on randomly generated problems including the Multiobjective Knapsack Problem, Multi-objective Shortest Path Problem and Multi-objective Spanning Tree Problem. Although we showed the algorithms work much better than the previous ones, we also proposed a fast heuristic method to approximate efficient frontier since it will also be applicable for real-sized problems. Our heuristic approach is based on fitting a surface to approximate the efficient frontier. We experiment our heuristic on randomly generated problems to test how well the heuristic procedure approximates the efficient frontier. Our results showed the heuristic method works well.

In vehicles one of the most important components which affect comfort of the driver and the purchasing decision is the driver&rsquo / s seat. In order to improve design of a driver seat in a leader company of automotive sector, a comprehensive analysis of customer expectations from the driver seat is performed with a cross functional team formed by representatives of design, marketing, production, quality and services departments. In this study, collection of customer voice data and development of an exceptional &ldquo / customer satisfaction estimation model&rdquo / using these data are presented. Data are modeled by the help of Logistic Regression. This model is able to estimate how much a given customer is likely to be satisfied with the driver seat at a certain confidence level. It is also explained how this model can be used to identify design improvement opportunities that help increase the probability that a customer likes the driver seat. The modeling and analysis approach used for the particular case is applicable in general to many other cases of product improvement or development.

In this study, we analyze a decentralized supply chain with a single retailer and a single manufacturer where the retailer sells two products in a single period. The products offered by the retailer consist of families of closely related products, which differ from each other in terms of a limited number of features only. The retailer places initial orders based on preliminary demand forecasts at the beginning of the period and has an opportunity to modify his initial order after receiving perfect demand information. However, the final orders of the retailer are constrained by his initial orders. Furthermore, the manufacturer is obligated to fill the retailer&rsquo / s final order for each product. The manufacturer has two options for procurement. The first procurement option is regular delivery at the beginning of the period, after the initial orders of the retailer. The next one is expedited delivery, after the updated orders of the retailer are received. The expedited delivery is more expensive than regular. In this setting, our objective is to present an analytical model for this contract and characterize the optimal policies for the retailer and the manufacturer. We analyze three different levels of order adjustment flexibility settings: (i) no order adjustment, (ii) unlimited order adjustment and (iii) limited order adjustment.

In this dissertation, we consider a multi-item two-echelon inventory distribution system in which the central warehouse operates with (Q, R) policy, and each local warehouse implements base-stock policy. The objective is to find the policy parameters minimizing the relevant system-wide costs subject to an aggregate mean response time constraint at each facility. We first propose an exact solution procedure based on a branch-and-price algorithm to find the relevant policy parameters of the system considered. Then, we propose four alternative heuristics to find the optimal or near-optimal policy parameters of large practical-size systems. The first heuristic, which we call the Lagrangian heuristic, is based on the simultaneous approach and relies on the integration of a column generation method and a greedy algorithm. The other three heuristics are based on the sequential approach, in which first the order quantities are determined using a batch size heuristic, then the reorder levels at the central warehouse and the basestock levels at the local warehouses are determined through the same method used for the Lagrangian heuristic. We also propose a lower bound for the system-wide cost. Later, we extend our study to compound Poisson demand. The performance of the Lagrangian heuristic is found to be extremely well and improves even further as the number of parts increases. Also the computational requirement of the heuristic is quite tolerable. This makes the heuristic very promising for large practical industry-size problems. The performance of the sequential heuristics is also satisfactory, but not as much as the Lagrangian heuristic.

In this study, we consider two bi-objective bin packing problems that assign a number of weighted items to bins having identical capacities. Firstly, we aim to minimize total deviation over bin capacity and minimize number of bins. We show that these two objectives are conflicting. Secondly, we study the problem of minimizing maximum overdeviation and minimizing the number of bins. We show the similarities of these two problems to parallel machine scheduling problems and benefit from the results while developing our solution approaches. For both problems, we propose exact procedures that generate efficient solutions relative to two objectives. To increase the efficiency of the solutions, we propose some lower and upper bounding procedures. The results of our experiments show that total overdeviation problem is easier to solve compared to maximum overdeviation problem and the bin capacity, the weight of items and the number of items are important factors that effect the solution time and quality. Our procedures can solve the problems with up to 100 items in reasonable solution times.

Contact is a phenomenon faced in every day life, which is actually a complex problem to tackle for engineers. Most of the times, may be impossible to get analytic or exact results for the interaction of bodies in contact. In this thesis work, solution of the frictionless contact of an elastic body, touching to a rigid planar surface for two-dimensional elasticity / namely plane stress, plane strain and axi-symmetric formulations is aimed. The problem is solved numerically, with Finite Element Method, and an Object Oriented computer program in C++ for this purpose is written, and the results are verified with some basic analytic solutions and ABAQUS package program. It is not aimed in this thesis work to give a new solution in the area of solution of contact problems, but instead, it is aimed to form a strong basis, and computational library, which is extendible for further development of the subject to include friction, plasticity, and different material modeling in this advanced field of mechanics.

In this study, a long annulus bonded to a rigid cylinder containing an axisymmetric circumferential crack of width (d-c) at the midplane is considered. The material of the annulus is assumed to be linearly elastic and isotropic. The external surface of the annulus is free of stress. Surfaces of the crack are subject to distributed compressive loads. The Fourier and Hankel transform techniques are used to solve the governing equations which are reduced to a singular integral equation for crack surface displacement derivative. This integral equation is converted to a system of linear algebraic equations which are solved numerically by using Gauss-Lobatto and Gauss-Jacobi quadrature formulas. Then, the stress intensity factors at the edges of the crack are calculated. Results are presented in graphical form.