Collaborative multidisciplinary design optimization: A framework applied on aircraft conceptual system design

In a product development process, it is crucial to understand and evaluate multiple and synergic aspects of systems such as performance, cost, reliability, and safety. These aspects are mainly considered during later stages of the design process. However, in order to improve the foundations for decision-making, this article presents methods that are intended to increase the engineering knowledge in the early design phases. In complex products, different systems from a multitude of engineering disciplines have to work tightly together. Collaborative design is described as a process where a product is designed through the collective and joint efforts of domain experts. A collaborative multidisciplinary design optimization process is therefore proposed in the conceptual design phase in order to increase the likelihood of more accurate decisions being taken early on. The performance of the presented framework is demonstrated in an industrial application to design aircraft systems in the conceptual phase.