As product development cycles become increasingly short while products grow more complex, new approaches in product development are needed to accommodate these developments. One of these approaches is Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE). MBSE enables the representation of products, which are seen as systems, in one seamless system model. To do so the product and its different aspects, such as physical behavior, are described by different models, that are then interconnected with each other. One advantage of applying MBSE is, that the usage of physical behavior models allows efficient virtual validation of many different product features and evaluation of implication due to design changes. However, performing sufficiently accurate virtual tests, especially for mechanical properties, requires detailed behavior models, which leads to a high modeling effort. For this reason, in the past efforts were made to standardize model components, referred to as system elements, that could be reused and thus reducing the modeling effort. The aim is to enable the modeling of any technical product from the composition of these base components. However, these system elements have not yet been modeled and organized in a library, which could then be distributed across modelers. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to firstly create a model library based on previously defined system elements that satisfies the required physical model properties. Furthermore, the applicability of this library in modeling is investigated and improvement potentials are derived. To do so a simplified gearbox model is created from multiple elements contained in a predefined library. The model created is then used to specifically investigate the ability to verify static safety using the physical behavior models contained in the library. The result of this work is an expandable model library of reusable system elements, that allows the aggregation of system models, representing products and the virtual verification of these products. Thus, enabling for a faster product development process as the modeling effort for the application of MBSE is reduced.

Increasing complexity and shorter innovation cycles require a rethink in the development of mechatronic products. A function-oriented development process using model-based systems engineering (MBSE) methods promises to identify technical solutions via solution-neutral functional architectures. Since each function can typically be realized by multiple, alternative solutions the combinatorial number of overall system solutions explodes. Existing MBSE approaches enable to establish functional architectures as well as support the verification of solutions. However, evaluating different solution combinations with the current state of research involves repetitive and time-consuming modeling which leads to a heuristic selection of potentially suboptimal solutions. In this paper, we present a method for the systematic and function-oriented composition and model-based evaluation of solution combinations. Alternative solutions are structured based on a functional architecture, so that each possible solution combination can be composed and simulated with a minimum of effort, considering physical interactions and the efficiency. Based on simulation results, solution combinations can be verified against requirements and evaluated striving for the best solution combination. The elaborated method extends an existing MBSE approach and is illustrated by the running example of an electrical coolant pump of a passenger vehicle.

Today’s systems are becoming increasingly complex due to the multitude of interactions between subsystems. This is also true for the electromechanical drivetrain and its physically interacting cooling system. In order to provide a virtual representation of such systems, including system architecture and product behaviour, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) introduces system models. System models are built using system elements and reoccurring models. MBSE, therefore, enhances the efficient development of complex systems by promoting model reuse in interdisciplinary architectural modelling. The reuse of models, such as calculation models, reduces redundancy, accelerates development iterations, and streamlines consistency. However, there is a lack of standardised and reusable model libraries to facilitate this reuse. In the approach in this paper, the reusability of those models is facilitated by the system elements, referred to as “solution elements”. MBSE system elements enable the structuring, reuse, and organization of models within model libraries. The identification of these system elements for heat-exchanging systems, however, remains an open challenge. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to develop a method for systematically identifying system elements in heat-exchanging systems, providing a formalized approach to reusing thermal models. The method focuses on functional and heat-transfer processes at the contact level referred to here as thermal contacts. The developed method is demonstrated through a case study of a thermal management system (TMS) of an electric truck. It is shown that a small set of recurring system elements can be used to represent a large number of individual thermal interactions, within TMS components and, therefore, streamline modelling efficiency significantly.