Structural optimization and automation have gained a significant mileage in recent past due to advent of advancements in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Engineering tools. The conventional approach of design cycle often results in bulkier products requiring optimization activity as a dedicated task resulting in increased overall design time.
This paper discusses knowledge based integrated parametric product design philosophy which is a synergistic approach inclusive of all the functions such as design, performance, stress, manufacturing, and automation to produce optimized designs meeting all the functional requirements at preliminary design stage of the product cycle itself. This involves establishing a basic standard architecture for a product family under consideration based on legacy knowledge reflecting the Design Failure Mode Effects Analysis (DFMEA), Design for Manufacturing & Assembly (DFMA) and data driven standard works. Then identify the key features that determine the success criteria for various functions like design, performance, and stress. These features can be identified based on the customer requirements and sizing matrix for stress and performance. The key steps involved in the proposed approach are CAD parametrization developing governing parametric equations for the basic architecture, sensitivity study to identify key design drivers and automation of key sizing cases based on physics-based, or hybrid data driven physics-based models to explore the design space for optimum solutions. A detailed analytical Design of Experiments (DOE) as appropriate needs to be adopted as part of establishing key parametric relations. In this paper a case study is presented on parametric optimization of simple hydraulic actuator to demonstrate the methodology under discussion.