Advanced cost models for application in composite aero-engine components

Researchers

Nikhil Thakur, PhD researcher, Centre for Advanced Design Engineering, Knowledge Based Engineering Lab

Supervisors: Prof Craig Chapman and Dr Pathmeswaran Raju

Industrial supervisor: Dr Phani Chinchapatnam, Rolls-Royce Plc.

Background

Composite technology is one of the key technologies that companies like Rolls-Royce are focusing on in order to develop the next generation of aero-engine architectures. This project aims to develop an advanced cost modelling system capable of evaluating product unit and lifecycle cost for composite components.

Research Aims

• Conduct extensive literature review in composite methods and techniques.
• Investigate the application of knowledge-based engineering to develop a cost modelling architecture for evaluating product cost with uncertain information.
• Develop an advanced composite cost modelling system based on the architecture.
• Simulate a realistic composite component business case evaluation using the developed system.

Method of research

The research will take the following methodological steps:

• Gain knowledge of cost estimation techniques in composite part manufacturing.
• Understand the characterization of composite knowledge and effectively utilize this in developing advanced cost models.
• Find ways to incorporate the uncertainty information and generate a realistic model.
• Integrate the acquired knowledge into a virtual cost modelling environment to enable multi-disciplinary optimization.

Outcomes

This project began in March 2016, and an extensive literature review is ongoing in the fields of cost modelling, composite manufacturing and knowledge based engineering approach in composite cost estimation. 

Applications

The potential applications of this research are wide-ranging and could have significance across a number of different disciplines, as the virtual cost modelling system developed will rapidly evaluate engineering business proposals for composite components.

This project aims to develop an advanced cost modelling system capable of evaluating product unit and lifecycle cost for composite components.