Engineering Design with Digital Thread

Abstract

Digital Thread offers the opportunity to use information generated across the product lifecycle to design the next generation of products. In this paper, we introduce a mathematical methodology that establishes the data-driven design and decision problem associated with Digital Thread. Our objectives are twofold: 1) Provide a mathematical definition of Digital Thread in the context of conceptual and preliminary design and establish a methodology for how information along the Digital Thread enters into the design problem as well how design decisions affect the Digital Thread. 2) Develop a data-driven design method that incorporates data from different sources from across the product life cycle. We illustrate aspects of our methodology through an example design of a structural fiber-steered composite component.