Showing papers on "Conceptual design published in 2018"

Tolerancing: Managing uncertainty from conceptual design to final product

Abstract: Variability is unavoidable in the realization of products. While design must specify ideal geometry, it shall also describe limits of variability (tolerances) that must be met in order to maintain proper product function. Although tolerancing is a mature field, new manufacturing processes and design methodologies are creating new avenues of research, and modelling standards must also evolve to support these processes. In addition, the study of uncertainty has produced widely-accepted methods of quantifying variability, and modern tolerancing tools should support these methods. The challenges introduced by new processes and design methodologies continue to make tolerancing research a fertile and productive area.

Incorporation of Safety and Sustainability in Conceptual Design via a Return on Investment Metric

Abstract: Traditionally, comprehensive process design has relied on a sound and insightful techno-economic analysis framework. In particular, once a base-case design is selected, further analysis is carried out to assess the environmental impact as well as possible process safety implications. Furthermore, limited modifications to the base-case design are typically carried out to concurrently address environmental and safety concerns. This sequential approach can thus lead to suboptimal process system designs when multiple objectives of profitability, sustainability, and safety are considered. Indeed, the simultaneous consideration of these objectives during the conceptual design phase of a project should lead to superior performance profiles. In the present work, a new approach for the incorporation of safety and sustainability considerations early enough during the conceptual design of the process is presented. This approach is based on extending the conventional return on investment (ROI) analysis to include pos...

A framework for mapping design for additive manufacturing knowledge for industrial and product design

Abstract: Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is a growing field of enquiry. Over the past few years, the scientific community has begun to explore this topic to provide a basis for supporting professional design practice. However, current knowledge is still largely fragmented, difficult to access and inconsistent in language and presentation. This paper seeks to collate and organise this dispersed but growing body of knowledge, using a single and coherent conceptual framework. The framework is based on a generic design process model and consists of five parts: Conceptual design, Embodiment design, Detail design and Process planning and Process selection. 81 articles on DfAM are mapped onto the framework to provide, for the first time, a clear summary of the state of the art across the whole design process. Nine directions for the future of DfAM research are then proposed.

Methods and tools for identifying and leveraging additive manufacturing design potentials

Abstract: Additive manufacturing (AM) allows the fabrication of complex design solutions and opens up new opportunities for improved products. To identify and optimally leverage these potentials, they must be considered as early as possible in new product development processes. Besides restrictive design rules, design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) thus particularly requires new opportunistic methods and tools in conceptual design and in the first steps of embodiment design. In this paper, AM design complexities and their benefits for new products are thoroughly analyzed and systematized. Many design methods from general design methodology can support the utilization of AM design potentials by their inherent nature of expanding the solution space. A criteria-based evaluation provides the basis for selecting and recommending appropriate design methods in the context of conceptual DFAM. To further adapt these methods to the identified AM design potentials, they are enriched by additional digital and physical DFAM tools. The combination of methods and tools is tested in a workshop environment with DFAM novices and DFAM experts to validate its practical applicability. It is shown that methodological support tailored to DFAM expertise and individual preferences can foster design potential utilization.

Artificial intelligence in architecture: Generating conceptual design via deep learning:

Abstract: Artificial intelligence, and in particular machine learning, is a fast-emerging field. Research on artificial intelligence focuses mainly on image-, text- and voice-based applications, leading to b...

Simplified crashworthiness method of automotive frame for conceptual design

Abstract: The crashworthiness design of automotive structure is crucial to ensure the safety of passengers. Lumped parameter models, multi-body models, plastic frame models and detailed shell element models were all introduced to simulate the collision process of automotive structure. However, plastic frame models were only confined to use box beams. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive crashworthiness design of plastic frame model, which can innovatively create complex thin-walled beams with arbitrary cross-sectional shapes, such as open, single-cell, double-cell, three-cell and four-cell sections. Numerical example verified that the proposed model can effectively replace detailed shell element model to accelerate the crashworthiness analysis of automotive structure, especially for the conceptual design.

A Proposed Approach to Studying Urban Air Mobility Missions Including an Initial Exploration of Mission Requirements

Abstract: Urban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging aviation market that seeks to revolutionize mobility around metropolitan areas via a safe, efficient, and accessible on-demand air transportation system for passengers and cargo In this paper we describe our three-pronged approach to studying passenger-carrying UAM missions, and we detail the first phase of this approach, which consists of defining an initial set of requirements for multiple exemplar UAM missions The development of these mission requirements provides justifiable assumptions that feed the second phase of the approach, which is performing aircraft conceptual design studies Vehicle design is not included in this paper, but the work described here will define sizing missions for follow-on design and sizing studies The aircraft that emerge from the design studies can then feed the third phase of our UAM analysis approach, which involves simulating an entire UAM network over a metropolitan area to study transportation-system level characteristics Iteration between each of the three phases of the UAM analysis approach will be necessary to propagate lessons learned as our research progresses and as the UAM community coalesces on a more unified vision for UAM Therefore, we anticipate that the mission requirements set forth in this paper will be modified over time as the urban air mobility concept matures

Opening up the Design Space of Neurofeedback Brain--Computer Interfaces for Children

Abstract: Brain--computer interface applications (BCIs) utilizing neurofeedback (NF) can make invisible brain states visible in real time. Learning to recognize, modify, and regulate brain states is critical to all children's development and can improve learning, and emotional and mental health outcomes. How can we design usable and effective NF BCIs that help children learn and practice brain state self-regulation? Our contribution is a list of challenges for this emerging design space and a conceptual framework that addresses those challenges. The framework is composed of five interrelated strong concepts that we adapted from other design spaces. We derived the concepts reflectively, theoretically, and empirically through a design research process in which we created and evaluated a NF BCI, called Mind-Full, designed to help children living in Nepal who had suffered from complex trauma learn to self-regulate anxiety and attention. We add rigor to our derivation methodology by horizontally and vertically grounding our concepts, that is, relating them to similar concepts in the literature and instantiations in other artifacts. We illustrate the generative power of the concepts and the inter-relationships between them through the description of two new NF BCIs we created using the framework for urban and indigenous children with anxiety and attentional challenges. We then show the versatility of our framework by describing how it inspired and informed the conceptual design of three NF BCIs for different types of self-regulation: selective attention and working memory, pain management, and depression. Last, we discuss the contestability, defensibility, and substantiveness of our conceptual framework in order to ensure rigor in our research design process. Our contribution is a rigorously derived design framework that opens up this new and emerging design space of NF BCI's for children for other researchers and designers.

A Review of Evaluation, Optimization and Synthesis of Energy Systems: Methodology and Application to Thermal Power Plants

Abstract: To reach optimal/better conceptual designs of energy systems, key design variables should be optimized/adapted with system layouts, which may contribute significantly to system improvement. Layout improvement can be proposed by combining system analysis with engineers’ judgments; however, optimal flowsheet synthesis is not trivial and can be best addressed by mathematical programming. In addition, multiple objectives are always involved for decision makers. Therefore, this paper reviews progressively the methodologies of system evaluation, optimization, and synthesis for the conceptual design of energy systems, and highlights the applications to thermal power plants, which are still supposed to play a significant role in the near future. For system evaluation, both conventional and advanced exergy-based analysis methods, including (advanced) exergoeconomics are deeply discussed and compared methodologically with recent developments. The advanced analysis is highlighted for further revealing the source, avoidability, and interactions among exergy destruction or cost of different components. For optimization and layout synthesis, after a general description of typical optimization problems and the solving methods, the superstructure-based and -free concepts are introduced and intensively compared by emphasizing the automatic generation and identification of structural alternatives. The theoretical basis of the most commonly-used multi-objective techniques and recent developments are given to offer high-quality Pareto front for decision makers, with an emphasis on evolutionary algorithms. Finally, the selected analysis and synthesis methods for layout improvement are compared and future perspectives are concluded with the emphasis on considering additional constraints for real-world designs and retrofits, possible methodology development for evaluation and synthesis, and the importance of good modeling practice.

Exploiting TRIZ Tools for enhancing systematic conceptual design activities

Abstract: Systematic design methods are widely diffused in academia, representing a standard in many engineering courses. Nevertheless, some flaws related to the conceptual design phase have been ascribed to these methods, especially concerning a non-comprehensive support to innovation. However, literature acknowledges several creativity-enhancing tools that can be conveniently combined with systematic design methods. In particular, many scholars refer to TRIZ, i.e. the well-known Russian problem-solving theory. Moreover, recent literature contributions propose some alternatives to the classical Functional Decomposition and Morphology (FDM), claiming to overcome some of the related flaws. One of them is the Problem Solution Network (PSN) approach, i.e. a systematic conceptual design method strongly based on a problem-solution co-evolutionary logic. In this context, our work aims at combining the potentialities of TRIZ with the benefits claimed for the PSN, by proposing a comprehensive integration procedure. Accordingly, this paper reports a detailed description of the proposal, where TRIZ tools are exploited to support problem solving within the PSN approach. Furthermore, an application is also reported where an industrial case study is presented to argue about possible potentialities and lacks of the proposed approach.

Cognitive human-machine interfaces and interactions for unmanned aircraft

Abstract: This paper presents the concept of Cognitive Human-Machine Interfaces and Interactions (CHMI2) for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Ground Control Stations (GCS). CHMI2 represents a new approach to aviation human factors engineering that introduces adaptive functionalities in the design of operators' command, control and display functions. A CHMI2 system assesses human cognitive states based on measurement of key psycho-physiological observables. The cognitive states are used to predict and enhance operator performance in the accomplishment of aviation tasks, with the objective of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall human-machine teaming. The CHMI2 system presented in this paper employs a four-layer architecture comprising sensing, extraction, classification and adaptation functionalities. An overview of each layer is provided along with the layer's metrics, algorithms and functions. Two relevant case studies are presented to illustrate the interactions between the different layers, and the conceptual design of the associated display formats is described. The results indicate that specific eye tracking variables provide discrimination between different modes of control. Furthermore, results indicate that the higher levels of automation supported by the CHM 2 are beneficial in Separation Assurance and Collision Avoidance (SA&CA) scenarios involving low-detectability obstacles and stringent time constraints to implement recovery manoeuvres. These preliminary results highlight that the introduction of CHMI2 functionalities in future UAS can significantly reduce reaction time and enhance operational effectiveness of unmanned aircraft response to collision and loss of separation events, as well as improve the overall safety and efficiency of operations.

Multi-criteria fuzzy decision support for conceptual evaluation in design of mechatronic systems: a quadrotor design case study

Abstract: Designing mechatronic systems is known to be a very complex and tedious process due to the high number of system components, their multi-physical aspects, the couplings between the different domains involved in the product, and the interacting design objectives. This inherent complexity calls for the crucial need of a systematic and multi-objective design thinking methodology to replace the often-used sequential design approach that tends to deal with the different domains and their corresponding design objectives separately leading to functional but not necessarily optimal designs. Thus, a new approach based on a multi-criteria profile for mechatronic systems is presented in this paper for the conceptual design stage. Additionally, to facilitate fitting the intuitive requirements for decision-making in the presence of interacting criteria, three different methods are proposed and compared using a case study of designing a vision-guided quadrotor drone system. These methods benefit from three different aggregation techniques such as Choquet integral, Sugeno integral and fuzzy-based neural network. To validate the decision yielded by the results of global concept score for each aggregation methods, a computer simulation of a visual servoing system on all design alternatives for quadrotor drone has been performed. It is shown that although the Sugeno fuzzy can be a useful aggregation function for decisions under uncertainty, but the approaches using Choquet fuzzy and fuzzy integral-based neural network seem to be more precise and reliable in a multi-criteria design problem where interaction between the objectives cannot be overlooked.

Magnetic and Mechanical Design of a 16 T Common Coil Dipole for an FCC

Abstract: A EuroCirCol is a conceptual design study for a post-LHC research infrastructure based on an energy-frontier 100 TeV circular hadron collider. In the frame of the high-field accelerator magnet design work package of this study, the feasibility of a 16 T dipole in a common coil configuration is being studied. This paper shows the electromagnetic design optimization performed to achieve the required field quality while minimizing the superconductor volume and taking into account the input parameters and assumptions of the EuroCirCol study. The finite element models have been used to analyze the stress distribution and deformations under the large Lorentz forces due to the very high magnetic field. Several iterations have been necessary to obtain a feasible magnet design. The 3-D electromagnetic calculations are also included in this paper.

Conceptual Design of Stratospheric Airships Focusing on Energy Balance

Abstract: Stratospheric airships can perform long-duration, wide-area observation missions above a specific location. The conceptual design of streamlined stratospheric airships is researched in this...

A comprehensive IoT node proposal using open hardware. A smart farming use case to monitor vineyards.

Abstract: The last decade has witnessed a significant reduction in prices and an increased performance of electronic components, coupled with the influence of the shift towards the generation of open resources, both in terms of knowledge (open access), programs (open-source software), and components (open hardware). This situation has produced different effects in today’s society, among which is the empowerment of citizens, called makers, who are themselves able to generate citizen science or build assembly developments. Situated in the context described above, the current study follows a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach. In this way, it attempts to define a conceptual design of an Internet of Things (IoT) node, which is reproducible at both physical and behavioral levels, to build IoT nodes which can cover any scenario. To test this conceptual design, this study proposes a sensorization node to monitor meteorological phenomena. The node is called SEnviro (node) and features different improvements such as: the possibility of remote updates using Over-the-Air (OTA) updates; autonomy, using 3G connectivity, a solar panel, and applied energy strategies to prolong its life; and replicability, because it is made up of open hardware and other elements such as 3D-printed pieces. The node is validated in the field of smart agriculture, with the aim of monitoring different meteorological phenomena, which will be used as input to disease detection models to detect possible diseases within vineyards.