Toward an Integrated Decision Support Framework for Sustainability CAE

Sustainability evaluation is typically conducted after the product is completely designed. However, sustainability, like cost and weight, needs to be managed on a continuous basis, throughout the product development cycle. This requires a decision support tool that provides sustainability analyses estimates at early design phases to guide detailed design. Such a decision support tool can be facilitated only through the complete integration of sustainability data into product development, in particular with Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools, methods, and processes. We present work toward developing an effective decision support framework for the CAE-level analysis of sustainability using information models that integrate sustainability data across design and engineering analysis tools, especially within the target management framework of the automotive industry. This framework is called Sustainability CAE (SCAE). In particular, we present an information model to capture the main components of knowledge required in CAE processes with interfaces to using various sustainability metrics. We establish the feasibility of this framework through the design, implementation, and analysis of a proof of concept that captures a typical design scenario in the automotive industry. We conclude with a discussion on potential topics for further research in this area.