Product Design and Development Using Computational and Numerical Modeling

Dear Colleagues, 

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented/virtual/mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), and cloud computing have the potential to drastically change the activities, output, and performance of product design and development (PDD) in the early phases. The majority of current applied new technology research is concentrated on the PDD and detailed design phases. They will have an impact on the front end of PDD in terms of understanding user needs, conceptual design, and the construction of systems architecture. 

In the design and implementation of products, PDD is inextricably linked. Engineering design is frequently a significant component of product development innovation, yet intriguing solutions that are prohibitively expensive or difficult to construct may never see the light of day. PDD advancement tends to minimize obstacles to implementation and expand design freedom, but it may also impose unique design constraints. As a result, new design methodologies and tools are required to assist engineers in navigating the unique design space formed by advanced manufacturing. The design of multifunctional, multimaterial, multiphysics, and/or multiscale parts and systems is one example of how advanced manufacturing opens up new opportunities. These designs must take into account how materials change during the manufacturing process, as well as manufacturing-induced flaws.

This Special Issue focuses on cutting-edge concepts in PDD. It also includes virtual simulation and reverse engineering, additive manufacturing, product manufacturing, numerical simulation, and computational modeling for machining mechanisms. Advanced manufacturing methods are in greater demand in a variety of sectors, from biomedical to aerospace. Modeling and mechanistic understanding of any physical phenomenon are the ways to create, hybridize, and improve manufacturing processes that can do more than what is currently possible.

This Special Issue aims to share the latest research, theories, and practices in product design and manufacturing technology in order to improve industrial performance. It will focus on how traditional and more sophisticated modeling methods can work together and how virtual manufacturing processes can be a source of new information.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Product design and development for circular business models;
• Design for manufacturable hollow structures, cellular structures, multiscale structures, multimaterial structures, and composite structures;
• Modeling, simulation, and control of manufacturing system;
• Design optimization methods such as topology optimization, size optimization, and shape optimization to support advanced manufacturing;
• Design for heterogeneous materials systems using hybrid manufacturing;
• Sustainable product design and development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);
• Sustainability in early product design and development;
• Democratization, fairness, inclusion, bias, and ethics in emerging PDD technologies and methods;
• Security, privacy, and intellectual property concerns in PDD.

Dr. Kevin Wong
Prof. Dr. Zhili Sun
Dr. Shengqing Li
Guest Editors

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• product design and development
• PDD
• computational modeling
• numerical modeling
• artificial intelligence
• early product design and development