Introducing virtual engineering technology into interactive design process with high-fidelity models

Product design is a complex decision making process requiring intense interaction between designers and the designed product. Consequently, the design process is significantly different from a pure mathematical optimization. This paper presents a decision support platform for interactive design that integrates mathematical optimization with human interaction based on VE-Suite. Current efforts are geared toward seamlessly linking high fidelity models, numerical optimization and human interaction to improve efficiency and quality in system performance. The designer´s interaction causes the optimization process to dynamically change by adding, deleting, and modifying objectives, constraints, and other parameters that govern the process. As an illustration, a coal pipe design case is used to demonstrate the new platform´s capabilities. The case has demonstrated that adding user interaction into the design process has the potential to improve design efficiency and quality.