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The verification of complex engineering systems from the very early phases of the design process is of primary importance, as it directly influences performance and system functionalities. Traditional design approaches aim at using simulations as a set of tools during the verification process. However, the current trend in the industry is towards simulation-based design processes in an iterative manner so as to constantly evaluate the system development. This perspective conveys the design process towards a verification-based design process. In the very early phases of the design process, evaluating different concepts for further development is not without problems, since a certain amount of product information is missing in the early phases. Therefore, traditional approaches have aimed at considering expert's opinions as the main evaluation criteria for assessing pre-concepts and concept designs. However, qualitative-based methods are highly limited according to expert's subjective judgements, level of expertise, as well as the ability to take into account multidisciplinary criteria in the case of complex systems.This dissertation presents research work related to the verification-driven design process of complex mechatronic systems using a stochastic reliability method for evaluating the concept design from the early phases of the product development. The main objective of this thesis consists in demonstrating the advantages of an innovative system design process based on a quantitative evaluation method using reliability as the main criteria. This thesis reviews the state of the art of the verification and validation process, describes different trends in the system design processes towards simulation-based design processes and reviews the best practices of decision-making processes in the engineering field. The work conducted during this thesis consists of the development and modelling of the verification-driven design approach. The method uses the stochastic Petri Net approach for modelling the operational and functional sequence of the system as well as its dysfunctional behaviour. Reliability parameters of each concept are estimated based on their level of design and thus various concepts can be evaluated against each other.The method is applied to case studies that consist of the development of a Remote Handling system for the maintenance of a fusion reactor called DEMO. The results confirm the benefit of such a method for designing and evaluating the concept design from the very early phases of the system development. The purpose of this research is to maintain the usefulness of the findings for other developments at a larger scale and in other fields than fusion engineering.

The verification of complex engineering systems from the very early phases of the design process is of primary importance, as it directly influences performance and system functionalities. Traditional design approaches aim at using simulations as a set of tools during the verification process. However, the current trend in the industry is towards simulation-based design processes in an iterative manner so as to constantly evaluate the system development. This perspective conveys the design process towards a verification-based design process. In the very early phases of the design process, evaluating different concepts for further development is not without problems, since a certain amount of product information is missing in the early phases. Therefore, traditional approaches have aimed at considering expert's opinions as the main evaluation criteria for assessing pre-concepts and concept designs. However, qualitative-based methods are highly limited according to expert's subjective judgements, level of expertise, as well as the ability to take into account multidisciplinary criteria in the case of complex systems. This dissertation presents research work related to the verification-driven design process of complex mechatronic systems using a stochastic reliability method for evaluating the concept design from the early phases of the product development. The main objective of this thesis consists in demonstrating the advantages of an innovative system design process based on a quantitative evaluation method using reliability as the main criteria. This thesis reviews the state of the art of the verification and validation process, describes different trends in the system design processes towards simulation-based design processes and reviews the best practices of decision-making processes in the engineering field. The work conducted during this thesis consists of the development and modelling of the verification-driven design approach. The method uses the stochastic Petri Net approach for modelling the operational and functional sequence of the system as well as its dysfunctional behaviour. Reliability parameters of each concept are estimated based on their level of design and thus various concepts can be evaluated against each other. The method is applied to case studies that consist of the development of a Remote Handling system for the maintenance of a fusion reactor called DEMO. The results confirm the benefit of such a method for designing and evaluating the concept design from the very early phases of the system development. The purpose of this research is to maintain the usefulness of the findings for other developments at a larger scale and in other fields than fusion engineering.

Nowadays companies are required to provide products with innovative and powerful features, and this includes more and more challenges in the development of those products. Computational methods, including modelling and simulation, have been identified as one of the key factors for success both in research and product development. Integration of software tools and management of digital models and computational data has been, and still is, a bottleneck in the wide application of computational methods. There is clear trend of research in the area of data, simulation and knowledge management. Research institutes have been already working on this topic for years, but many issues are still unsolved. The report is a study of the current state of the art of the data management in modelling and simulation. The report is prepared considering the current state of the art and the needs of Finnish industry. This document aims to provide a better understanding of the major issues currently faced in the Finnish industry concerning modelling and simulation, and in order to be able to propose ways of improvement in the following phase of the SIMPRO project. The aim is to continue the study of these subjects according to experiences of the partners, problems and needs. Some clear aspects have to be studied in more detail especially concerning the existing software application tools, both commercial and open source. This requires getting familiar with those tools and utilising them on some case studies, which may be provided directly from the partners, in order to highlight the real issues and gaps that might be problematic for the users.

Use of computational methods with multidisciplinary models and simulation has been identified as one of the key factors for major progress in research and rapid development of advanced products. However, lack of software tools that allow integration and management of the modelling and simulation data from various disciplines has remained a bottleneck in the wide application of computational methods both in research and industry. The purpose of this task is to identify challenges and problems faced by the design engineer during the modelling and simulation phase of the product development and design process. The objectives of this task are to identify the possibilities for data exchange between simulation tools and accessibility and exchange of data among teams and between tools. In this report, data exchange between various simulation tools has been stated together with the Simulation Lifecycle Management tools. The report also describes various middleware that plays an important role in the transfer of data between the tools. This document gives the foundations for the SIMPRO project task 4.3, which studies the use of simulations over the product lifecycle using the selected case studies. Tools will be studied and used among different aprocesses and interacting with different software and specialists.

The activities in task 4.3 are the continuation of SIMPRO VTT subproject tasks 4.1 and 4.2. In task 4.1, the challenges regarding the use of simulation during product development were identified. The task 4.2 was dedicated to identify the potential solutions for the problems faced by the design engineers during the modelling and simulation phase of the product development and design process. The objectives of task 4.3 were to implement and test the identified Simulation Lifecycle Management (SLM) solutions for data exchange between simulation tools. This report describes the research work carried out in task 4.3. During this task the accessibility and exchange of data among teams and between tools were studied by using the selected case studies. The case studies were defined together with the industrial partners of the SIMPRO project to ensure the industrial relevance of the results. The implementation of the case studies was done in ANSYS EKM (from ANSYS) and Simulia (from Dassault Systémes) which are commercially available SLM solutions. The research work shows that modern SLM tools can be used by industry to implement an improved product development and lifecycle data management process. However, such implementation is yet far from seamless. Integration of proprietary design and simulation tools remains a major challenge and implementation of processes requires significant expertise. Additionally, the high price of the tools and continuous dependence on the SLM tool vendors for the integration of new tools remains a bottleneck. These can be considered significant barriers for SMEs to employ SLM tools for improving their product development processes.