Finite Element Analysis and Design of Experiments in Engineering Design

Projects with the objective of introducing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) into the early phases of the design process have previously been carried out at the Department of Machine Design, see e.g. the Doctoral thesis by Burman [13]. These works clearly highlight the usefulness of introducing design analysis early in the design process. According to Bjärnemo and Burman [10] the most significant advantage of applying design analysis early in the design process was the shift from verification to predictive analysis. Based on these results the following objective has been established for Predictive Design Analysis (PDA), Bjärnemo and Burman [10]:
Development of computer based tools for generating features of the product-to-be that are computationally obtainable on all levels of concretization throughout the mechanical engineering design process.