Ontology based knowledge management and reuse approach in digital design

Digital design of mechanical products depends much on reuse of existing design knowledge. An ontology based knowledge management approach and reuse method towards digital design process was proposed in this paper. According to the characteristics of digital design process of mechanical products and the characteristics of knowledge reuse during them, the generic technology of the design knowledge management was discussed. The digital design tasks are classified into two basic types in the approach: structure design and parametric design. The relations between the design task and its linkage knowledge (design cases, design rules, design criteria, and handbooks) are represented in the ontology model. Through finding the linkage knowledge according to the current scenario of design phase, the relevant knowledge items would thus be effectively located and retrieved. A case of the digital design process of a thread rolling board illustrates the proposed approach.