VIRTUAL FUEL-PUMP DESIGN

Some concepts of virtual product are discussed. The key technologies ofvirtual fuel-pump development are in detail analysed, which include virtual fuel-pump productmodeling, intelligent simulation, distributed design environment, and virtual assembly. The virtualfuel-pump development prototype system considers requirement analysis, concept design, injectionpreferment analysis, detailed design, and assembly analysis.

The Creative Design Research of Product Appearance Based on Human-machine Interaction and Interface

Today’s product creative design has rendered many fe atures and has brought a great change in our everyday life, there are many new c hallenges in its traditional theory and principle. According to the traditional design theory, the FBS design model pays more attention to the function and stru cture of the product. But this model still couldn’t strengthen the relation bet ween product appearance design and human-machine design effectively. This paper adopt converse design thinking and presents an improved design thinking methodo logy based on C: FBS for product appearance design and give a general summarizat ion for the features, methods and technology based on human-machine interaction and interface. Meanwhile it also combines with the behavior design of product r elated IT fields and constructs a new outline to improve the design of product a ppearance supported by the technology of computer aided design. So the new metho d about design thinking for computer aided design, the new abstract product design model and the key problem of design thinking based on human-machine inte raction and interface are addressed in this paper. This kind of creative design theory that is driven by human-machine interaction and interface will help the development of CAD software system and the research of product design and manufa cture. Additionally, this paper gives some beneficial characters to address the theory based on human-machine interaction and interface. Meanwhile, combining with the developing of computer technology, the trends of design thinking based on t he technology of human-machine interaction and interface are also analyzed and discussed at the end of this paper.

Application Study on 3D Modeling of Axial Compressor Blades Based on CFD and CAD

A new method for design of turbomachinery blades is presented. The parameters of a compressor blade are created from the Computational Fluid Dynamics （CFD） software CFX-BladeGen, and are inputted to the Computer Aided Design （CAD） software UG for building a curve surface model to create an entity model in UG. The result shows that the blade model is favorable from the entity effect and reflection analysis and the model process is useful for the CAD model creation of turbomachinery blades.

A New Manufacturing Method for Hourglass Worm Gear Hob Based on a Semi⁃automatic CAD

The top relief surfaces of an hourglass worm gear hob are ground manually in the traditional manufacturing process,which cannot ensure the width of the land surfaces of the hob.Moreover,each geometric feature of the hob has been produced through different manufacturing techniques and machine tools,which results in low efficiency.To solve this problem,we propose a semi-automatic computer aided design(CAD)method for hobs.The point clouds of each feature surface of a hob are calculated by combing mathematical equations of the top relief surfaces built by the proposed method with other existing equations of hob surfaces.According to the point clouds,the method can achieve the automatic modeling for the hob in three-dimensional(3D)software by classifying and extracting the parameter information of the feature-hierarchical knowledge of the hob.Based on the generated 3D model,the entire surfaces of the hob can be manufactured on a four-axis computer numerical control(CNC)milling machine through only twice clamping.Verification of the width of the land surface of the hob manufactured by semi-automatic CAD method on a measuring projector proved the precision of the designed width can be ensured.The edge of the contact area on the worm wheel in a meshing experiment is clear and distinct,which means the worm gear drive is meshed well and the hob manufactured by the proposed method has improved machinability.The method simplifies the processing technique,and improves the design efficiency and production accuracy.

Photogrammetry, CAD Modeling and FE Analysis for Improving the Performance of a Spinnaker

Objectives： The sails fabrication knew a significant development under the impulse of sailing races like the America＇s Cup and the Volvo around the World Race. These competitions require advanced technologies to increase performance of the sails. In the paper, Reverse Engineering （RE） acquisition, CAD （Computer Aided Design） reconstruction and FE （Finite Element） analysis are used in the design phase for a spinnaker in order to maximize the performance of the sail boat. Materials and Methods： The comparison, between the design data and the characteristics in the real conditions of use of the sail （constant wind pressure acting on the sail）, was carried out by the reconstruction of the three-dimensional CAD model of the spinnaker shape in full-scale, using a non contact Reverse Engineering technique, the photogrammetry and by a FE non linear static analysis. Results： The results of this study show a good correspondence between the design data and the characteristics in the real conditions of use of the sail. Significance： The described methodology is useful for sail makers. It can be successfully adopted to generate three-dimensional CAD-FE models of a sail starting from a very cheap and fast Reverse Engineering non-contact procedure.

Design and Development of an Innovative System to Stabilize a Windsurf

Research and development within the windsurfing field is comprised purely of previous experience, prototype building and testing on the water. The use of Computer Aided Design （CAD） systems and simulation packages can significantly help in the design and testing phases by optimizing the design before a prototype is built. In the paper, supported by these software tools, the authors show a new patented system, named iDO, developed with the aim to stabilize the windsurf, to allow reducing the initial difficulties that a beginner meets in the learning phase. The design process, from the idea to the manufacturing aspects, with all the technical and technological problems, is described. The validation product was carried out by means of user evaluation questionnaires from sixty-four windsurfing beginners in several countries over world. The results show that the users are significantly satisfied with the product.

CAD and CAE Integration Through Scientific Visualization Techniques for Illumination Design

Engineers tend to use different software to perform tasks such as geometry modeling, database management, numerical analysis, and visualization. This may cause decrease of productivity and loss of information during the conversion process between different data file formats. This paper presents a computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided engineering (CAE) system integration using scientific visualization tools and techniques. It deals with the development of a 3D CAD add-in for lighting analysis which uses the CAD model as 3D interface for creating a lighting scheme, processing, and visualizing 2D or 3D illuminance fields. Visualization features as color and contour mapping were developed using the visualization toolkit (VTK) toolkit. The application integrates all functionalities of the 3D CAD with tools for light sources database management, pre-processing, processing, and post-processing of illuminance fields in a single environment. This approach increases productivity and eliminates the need for different software.

Integration of CAD/CAE System for Casting Process Design

Concurrent engineering is needed to modernize the foundry industry and to reduce the scrap from castings and thus increase the economic profit. This paper presents an integrated 3-D CAD/CAE system for a foundry using concurrent engineering which considers casting structure, casting type, and manufacturing properties in the CAD module to design the pouring system, the riser, the chill core and so on. A visualized solid model is developed for the casting component with the model design enhanced by CAE analysis. Heat transfer and fluid flow simulation are used to analyze the initial design. The whole product development process is analyzed using concurrent engineering methods. The application shows that the integrated system can improve the efficiency of the design and manufacturing process of die casting.

Computer Aided Design System for Developing Musical Fountain Programs

A computer aided design system for developing musical fountain programs was developed with multiple functions such as intelligent design, 3-D animation, manual modification and synchronized motion to make the development process more efficient. The system first analyzed the music form and sentiment using many basic features of the music to select a basic fountain program. Then, this program is simulated with 3-D animation and modified manually to achieve the desired results. Finally, the program is transformed to a computer control program to control the musical fountain in time with the music. A prototype system for the musical fountain was also developed. It was tested with many styles of music and users were quite satisfied with its performance. By integrating various functions, the proposed computer aided design system for developing musical fountain programs greatly simplified the design of the musical fountain programs.

GFFD： Generalized free-form deformation with scalar fields

The novel free-form deformation (FFD) technique presented in the paper uses scalar fields definedby skeletons with arbitrary topology. The technique embeds objects into the scalar field by assigning a field value to each point of the objects. When the space of the skeleton is changed, the distribution of the scalar field changes accordingly, which implicitly defines a deformation of the space. The generality of skeletons assures that the technique can freely define deformable regions to produce a broader range of shape deformations.

Construction Management Utilizing 4D CAD and Operations Simulation Methodologies

The paper presents applications of simplified discrete-event simulation (SDESA), and 4D-GCPSU, to the National Stadium of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Taking into account influential factors, e.g., resource, spatial condition, and the randomness of the construction process, the installation process of the steel-structure was simulated and optimized by using genetic algorithm (GA) optimization methodology. The operations simulation shortened the installation duration by 39 days (about 16% of the original total duration), guided the manufacturers to plan the construction processes, and provided specific suggestions on the entry time of the installation components, resulting in resource allocation optimization, resource saving, and construction efficiency improvement. Combining with the optimized schedule, the 4D visualization environment can discover time-space conflicts timely, and may assist project managers to reschedule the construction activities in tune with the site layout and resource allocation.

Process-condition-driven Automatic Location of Components

In order to reduce the development cycle of mechanical products and corresponding toolings, a large number of components are utilized in these structures. Accordingly, automatic location method for components is a key issue in the research on intelligent computer aided design （CAD） techniques. Integrated with the investigation into intelligent design techniques for aircraft manufacturing toolings, in-depth researches on this issue are conducted. Formalized automatic location principles, representative methods and implementation algorithms are proposed and established. First, several terms and their formalized representative methods including process condition, location base and location operator are defined. Second, computation modeling of components automatic location and methods of location transformation are proposed. Then, definition of base structure and some key algorithms for automatic location are introduced. These principles and algorithms are developed, applied and verified in research project ＂Jig Intelligent CAD （JiglCAD） System＂.

STEP-based Feature Recognition System for B-spline Surface Features

The geometrical and topological information of 3D computer aided design （CAD） models should be represented as a neut- ral format file to exchange the data between different CAD systems. Exchange of 3D CAD model data implies that the companies must exchange complete information about their products, all the way from design, manufacturing to inspection and shipping. This informa- tion should be available to each relevant partner over the entire life cycle of the product. This led to the development of an international standard organization （ISO） neutral format file named as standard for the exchange of product model data （STEP）. It has been ob- served from the literature, the feature recognition systems developed were identified as planar, cylindrical, conical and to some extent spherical and toroidal surfaces. The advanced surface features such as B-spline and its subtypes are not identified. Therefore, in this work, a STEP-based feature recognition system is developed to recognize t--spline surface features and its sub-types from the 3D CAD model represented in AP203 neutral file format. The developed feature recognition system is implemented in Java programming language and the product model data represented in STEP AP203 format is interpreted through Java standard data access interface （JSDAI）. The developed system could recognize B-spline surface features such as B-Spline surface with knots, quasi uniform surface, uniform surface, rational surface and Bezier surface. The application of extracted B-spline surface features information is discussed with reference to the toolpath generation for STEP-NC （STEP AP238）.

Machining Robot with Vibrational Motion and 3D Printer-like Data Interface

In this paper, a vibration motion control is proposed and implemented on a foamed polystyrene machining robot to suppress the generation of undesirable cusp marks, and the basic performance of the controller is verified through machining experiments of foamed polystyrene. Then, a 3 dimensional （3D） printer-like data interface is proposed for the machining robot. The 3D data inter- face enables to control the machining robot directly using stereolithography （STL） data without conducting any computer-aided man- ufacturing （CAM） process. This is done by developing a robotic preprocessor that helps to remove the need for the conventional CAM process by directly converting the STL data into cutter location source data called cutter location （CL） or cutter location source （CLS） data. The STL is a file format proposed by 3D systems, and recently is supported by many computer aided design （CAD）/CAM soft- waxes. The STL is widely used for rapid prototyping with a 3D printer which is a typical additive manufacturing system. The STL deals with a triangular representation of a curved surface geometry. The developed 3D printer-like data interface allows to directly control the machining robot through a zigzag path, rectangular spiral path and circular spiral path generated according to the information included in STL data. The effectiveness and usefulness of the developed system are demonstrated through actual machining experiments.

STEP AP 242 Managed Model-based 3D Engineering:An Application Towards the Automation of Fixture Planning

Fixture design and planning is one of the most important manufacturing activities, playing a pivotal role in deciding the lead time for product development. Fixture design, which affects the part-quality in terms of geometric accuracy and surface finish, can be enhanced by using the product manufacturing information(PMI) stored in the neutral standard for the exchange of product model data(STEP) file, thereby integrating design and manufacturing. The present paper proposes a unique fixture design approach, to extract the geometry information from STEP application protocol(AP) 242 files of computer aided design(CAD) models, for providing automatic suggestions of locator positions and clamping surfaces. Automatic feature extraction software "FiXplan", developed using the programming language C#, is used to extract the part feature, dimension and geometry information. The information from the STEP AP 242 file is deduced using geometric reasoning techniques, which in turn is utilized for fixture planning. The developed software is observed to be adept in identifying the primary, secondary, and tertiary locating faces and locator position configurations of prismatic components. Structural analysis of the prismatic part under different locator positions was performed using commercial finite element method software, ABAQUS, and the optimized locator position was identified on the basis of minimum deformation of the workpiece.The area-ratio(base locator enclosed area(%)/work piece base area(%)) for the ideal locator configuration was observed as 33%. Experiments were conducted on a prismatic workpiece using a specially designed fixture, for different locator configurations. The surface roughness and waviness of the machined surfaces were analysed using an Alicona non-contact optical profilometer. The best surface characteristics were obtained for the surface machined under the ideal locator positions having an area-ratio of 33%, thus validating the predicted numerical results. The efficiency, capability and applicability of the developed software is demonstrated for the finishing operation of a sensor cover – a typical prismatic component having applications in the naval industry, under different locator configurations.The best results were obtained under the proposed ideal locator configuration of area-ratio 33%.