Collaborative Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

Abstract

Multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) has been relegated to a process centered about a series of mathematical procedures. Although the early MDO framework of the 1990s was structured, it retained the basic elements of concurrent engineering, which included qualitative as well as quantitative factors. The original focus of MDO is reviewed here with an emphasis on policy aspects. Collaborative engineering is explored as a means of linking current MDO practices with the past ideology. The resulting framework is termed collaborative multidisciplinary design optimization.