Development of Web services-based Multidisciplinary Design Optimization framework

The defining characteristic of a Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) strategy or method, compared to the more traditional, sequential approach to conducting design work, is that the contributions of all mutually influential disciplines are concurrently taken into account. Therefore, a framework that allows the implementation of MDO methods must be an environment for design synthesis. It is also desired that the user of an MDO framework be capable of efficiently integrating and managing the resources distributed over heterogeneous platforms. This paper proposes a Web services-based MDO framework that enables the synthesis of available disciplinary and cross-disciplinary resources for MDO via the Globus Toolkit. Examples of organic and autonomous execution of MDO methods are presented to highlight the effectiveness of modern automation techniques, such as workflow management system and agent technology. The salient features of a planned collaborative design environment, which will be built through Web-based user interfaces, are discussed last.