A review of modelling approaches for conceptual design of complex engineering systems (CESs)

It is proven that the conceptual design has high impacts on performance of Complex Engineering Systems (CESs). Designers devise models as a key artifact in engineering design. Different modelling approaches have different ontologies serving different purposes in design process. However, it is hard to find many scholarly papers that comprehensively review existing modelling approaches which can be applied in conceptual design of the aforementioned systems. This article aims at reviewing the existing literature in this context to understand fundamental concepts of existing modelling approaches and formalisms, how they can serve conceptual design and what their relative strengths and shortcomings are. The review also suggests possible future directions in this research context.