Holistic robustness evaluation in early design stages

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Sven Matthiesen; Professor Dr.-Ing. Sandro Wartzack
• Subject Area: Engineering Design, Machine Elements, Product Development
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 467789897

Early robustness evaluation considering the sensitivity of a product design to manufacturing induced geometry variation is a crucial basis for an efficient product development. In early design stages, this aspect is best implemented by a holistic quantitative robustness evaluation. However, despite the awareness regarding its great benefit, this aspect usually remains unconsidered in industrial practice. This is due to the missing structure of existing robust design approaches and the lack of necessary product information in early stages. Motivated by these current drawbacks the proposed research program addresses these issues through an integrated approach combining aspects of the design domain and the tolerancing domain. The approach is based on the contact and channel approach for structured analysis and documentation of embodiment function relations including boundary conditions and the tolerance graph enabling a computer-interpretable mapping of information relevant in the context of robust design. The approach fosters an explicit documentation of interrelations and a structured analysis. Thus, it enables a holistic robustness evaluation in early design stages.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants