A holistic product design and analysis model and its application in railway vehicle systems design

For complex mechanical systems, to overcome design inconsistencies, it is becoming more and more necessary that product design system is effectively integrated with various analysis models and tools from multiple engineering domains at different design stages. In this article, a Holistic Product Design and Analysis Model, which is well supported by Top–Down design method, is conceptualized to define design and analysis integration at different levels, which will help enhance engineering design and analysis interoperability and integrate the design methods and analysis tools across multiple engineering domains. It is based on four design levels: system, subsystem, machine and component designs; at each level, design and analysis models are integrated under a Generalized Multirepresentation Architecture supporting design, analysis and optimization appropriately. For cross-level integration from top to bottom, the design models are transferred and mapped with more structural and geometric details, while analysis models obtain more detailed design constraints from the top levels. This new architecture has been developed and demonstrated with an application in a railway vehicle system design, although its optimization components have not been fully implemented. This model can be used for general mechanical product system design.