Design Management System of OTEC Plant Based on a Knowledge Template

Abstract

We focused on developing a management system that provides a design process in which the important attributes of the product can be easily incorporated. We developed a knowledge template to express the product information using five types of knowledge, namely, knowledge about product structure, product entity, product function, product constraint, and product design process. To determine a suitable design process, we first compared the knowledge template of existing products with the product being designed. We calculated the consistency between the two models. From the results of the consistency calculation, we selected and extracted the available knowledge. We created a new design process by using the knowledge extracted from the design template. Finally, we evaluated the process from three perspectives: the ease with which the customer requirements could be reflected, the level of difficulty of the design conflict problem, and the level of difficulty of the design loop problem. Based on the results of this evaluation, designers can select a process to design a new product. We developed a prototype system and used it to design an ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) system. The design knowledge for an actual OTEC design was adequately represented by the proposed knowledge template. The most important attribute has a higher value in the design process obtained using the proposed management system process than in the existing system. The proposed management system yields a design process that can easily reflect customer requirements.