Generalized set propagation operations for concurrent engineering

Abstract

AbstractThis paper defines a number of general operations that accept arbitrary sets of values for two variables and general relations among three variables and generate a variety of third sets that are useful in design. Although the operations are defined without respect to mathematical or engineering domain, computing these operations depends on the specific mathematical domain, and algorithms are available for only a few domains. Appropriate software could make this complexity transparent to the designer, allowing the same conceptual operations to be used in many contexts. The paper proves a number of useful characteristics of the operations and offers examples of their potential use in design.