Isomorphic Representations and Well-Formedness of Engineering Systems

When representing the elements of different engineering systems as vertices and edges of a mathematical graph, the well-formedness of the topology of the graph, and hence the topology of the engineering system, can be explicitly computed. This enables checking the well- formedness of the engineering system before investing the effort needed for a complete analysis. This method is demon- strated in the paper for the following fields: trusses, dynamic mass-spring-damper oscillator systems and planetary gear systems. The approach facilitates achieving rapid design, correct first time, which is an important aim of modern design computation.