Use of physical knowledge for automation of the initial stages of designing

The designing of new high-end technical objects on the basis of new, original principles of action, becomes a more and more important design direction, which gives large economic benefits. The quality of decisions taken at the initial stages of design largely depends on the amount and quality of the physical information used. In the paper the analysis of the known techniques of physical knowledge application in design are considered. Also one of the most perspective approaches based on the automatic synthesis of structures of physical principles of operation is introduced. PPO is a structure reflecting some interrelations of physical effects and phenomena, which are resulting, in their own interaction, in the execution of the user-defined function. The fund, containing more than 1200 structured descriptions of physical effects, applies to synthesis support. The fund efficiency for information support of the design process is shown.