ABSTRACT
With the growing adoption of model-based system development to shorten product development cycles and reduce costs and hardware prototypes, modeling of physical and control systems has emerged as a critical element in modern systems engineering efforts. The systems engineering V is a standard way to describe the processes that encompass a system engineering effort. While the V model has been refined as applied in particular industries, the core process steps are largely similar across applications. One representation of the systems engineering V as applied to intelligent transportation systems is shown in Figure 22.1. Modeling and simulation supports the systems engineering V throughout the entire product development process. In the early stages of the V, upfront modeling supports initial concept assessment and target and requirements cascade moving down the left side of the V. Computer-aided engineering (CAE) methods such as finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are typically employed 550at the bottom of the V to support detailed design and development efforts. Moving back up the right side of the V, the integration and verification phases routinely involve verification and validation (V&V) using model-based representations of the engineered system. After system deployment, models can be used to help understand and diagnose issues in the field and can even provide simulation-based maintenance opportunities. Although the type of modeling naturally evolves with engineering tasks and data availability throughout the product development process, it is quite clear that models can and do play a critical role in complex systems engineering efforts.
