An Exploration of the Role of System Level Variable Choice in Multidisciplinary Design

Abstract

The process of designing large engineering systems can involve extensive sharing of resources among many competing subsystems. These resources may be represented as design parameters that are shared between the system level and each subsystem. Frameworks for understanding the role of the choice of system level design variables on overall system design may be valuable for the synthesis of complex engineering systems. This paper examines the outcome of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) using three distinct combinations of system level variables on a satellite design example. The results of these sets of system level variables are compared on their convergence time and robustness.