A systems engineering methodology for fuel efficiency and its application to a tactical wheeled vehicle demonstrator

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Defense faces growing fuel demand, resulting in increasing costs and compromised operational capability. In response to this issue, the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator (FED) program was initiated in order to demonstrate a tactical vehicle with significantly greater fuel efficiency than a Humvee while maintaining capability. An additional focus of the program was the exposure of systems engineering practices and methodologies to government engineers. This document provides an overview of a systems engineering methodology for maximizing fuel efficiency and its application in concept development for the FED program. The methodology is organized into a phased process, comprising definition of operational requirements, modeling of design alternatives, analysis of design space, development of product concepts, and prototype verification. Tools and methods used included requirements tradespace definition, provisional baseline product models, decomposition of energy expenditure over the product usage cycle, structured technology market surveys inclusive of lead users, surrogate model-based simulation tools, and design space exploration / Pareto optimization. Object-Process Methodology (OPM) is used within the document to illustrate process elements and their relationships. A key element of the methodology is the intensive use of modeling and simulation to enable data driven decision making. In particular, neural network-based surrogate models of engineering code allow the evaluation of thousands of feasible design configurations. It is intended that this rigorous framework is applicable to the improvement of any attribute of any product system.