Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
Robert A. Frederick Jr.
Committee Member
Dale Thomas
Committee Member
Jason T. Cassibry
Subject(s)
Aeronautics--Systems engineering., Astronautics--Systems engineering., Modeling languages (Computer science), SysML (Computer science)
Abstract
A complexity metric was proposed for the quantification of system complexity using information about the composition of a system and its interactions depicted in a System Modelling Language (SysML) model. The proposed metric was adapted from the complexity metric developed by Sinha and Suh for design structure matrix (DSM) applications, and was modified to allow the proposed metric to be applied at different decomposition levels and to accommodate the inclusion of external interactions. The metric was applied to three case studies: an aircraft engine, a Mars lander, and a spacecraft thermal control system. The proposed metric attributed a higher amount of complexity due to the interactions compared to the DSM metric. This variance resulted in instances where the results differed for the two metrics. Despite the differences, both metrics behaved similarly to changes in component or interaction complexity, quantifying how changes in component or interaction complexity affects system complexity.
Recommended Citation
Lopez, Victor Emmanuel Pierre, "Complexity assessment using systems modelling language models" (2019). Theses. 299.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/299