Tackling with redundant design solutions through axiomatic design

Abstract

Redundancy is a multifaceted issue that might be addressed according to the context, and Axiomatic Design (AD) is an appropriate approach to deal with it in engineering applications. According to the AD’s Independence Axiom, design solutions can be uncoupled, decoupled or coupled. Uncoupled and decoupled solutions are seen as “good design”, the uncoupled ones being the best, while coupled designs are regarded as “poor design”. Redundant designs belong to a special kind of designs, in which the number of design parameters is larger than the number of functional requirements. Such designs can also be uncoupled, decoupled or coupled and this paper provides a systematic way for identifying the good and the poor redundant design solutions, as well as some clues to help generating good redundant designs. The paper also delivers simple examples to illustrate diverse issues of redundant designs, and presents seven new theorems two new corollaries that help identifying and generating good redundant designs.