Entity-based integrated product and process models for computer-aided structural design

Integrated computer-aided design systems manage, communicate, and process the information created by and used in a variety of planning and design activities. Formal models of both the design product and the design process are important conceptual steps in the development of an integrated system. This dissertation presents research toward integrated product and process models for structural design in which each entity in the product model describes information used by activities in the process model, and each activity in the process model is described as operations on entities in the product model. This study focuses on developing formal and consistent concepts and notation for use in creating integrated product and process models for structural design based on the concepts of semantic data models (i.e., entity-based concepts) and related abstraction mechanisms. The formal concepts and notation enable the design information and the design activities to be tied together. Previous research on formal models for structural design is reviewed. Information modeling concepts useful for developing product and process models are studied. Then, elements and notation needed to create integrated product and process models are developed. An approach to generate product and process models for structural design using these elements and notation is developed. Finally, the product and process modeling approach is applied to the preliminary design of beams and frames respectively. The study concludes with a summary and recommendations for future research.