Early Conceptual Phase Research Articles

New Approach for a Comprehensive Method for Urban Vehicle Concepts with Electric Powertrain and their Necessary Vehicle Structures

Due to the strict discussions regarding energy saving and the goal to reduce CO2 emissions to 95 g CO2/km, specified for the year 2020 (BUMD, 2009), there is a strong demand for lighter and lightweight design automotive structures to support the energy saving targets. In view of a holistic approach, and to prospectively meet the requirements of the automotive sector, economic and production-orientated aspects, as well as joining technologies within the scope of multi-material design must also be considered to achieve a great leap towards medium to large-scale production.To accomplish these goals, a comprehensive method for urban vehicle concepts with electric powertrain and their necessary vehicle structures is presented. The dimensions and packaging of the presented vehicle are based on demands of a future urban vehicle with a four-passenger capacity that includes baggage, steerable front system wheels and a rear axle with an electric powertrain. At the beginning of the method, the relevant user requirements, e.g. space for occupants and baggage and range for the urban vehicle, are defined. In addition, input variables are discharged through state-of-the-art electric vehicles. In this step, it is important to consider additional requirements, such as crash requirements or requirements for electrical components in the vehicle design. With the defined requirements, the package of the urban car has to be defined. Two paths are determined to a geometrically and a simulative way. The simulative consideration is limited to the vehicle longitudinal dynamics; thus, a rough dimensioning of the drive components is derived. The outputs of the simulation are the performance measures, which are converted into components for the overall model to dimension, for example, the electric motor or battery.The geometric design phase begins with the positioning of the occupants in the passenger compartment and the ergonomic layout. Based on this conception of the complete vehicle, various FEM optimisations (topology, topography, size) are carried out for the body in white, in order to construct structures for individual (functional) components/modules. This top-down approach gives the opportunity to obtain constructive innovations, which must be integrated within this early concept phase, also to reduce costs when aiming to develop a series product. With this holistic approach, a load-specific optimised structural design is generated virtually and evaluated, and an outlook on dynamic loads (crash behaviour) is also given. The focus here is on the potential for innovations by the definition of novel package alignments in combination with the useful application of multi-material-design methods, resulting in a light modular vehicle structure.

Virtual Geometry Assurance Process and Toolbox

Geometrical variation in individual manufacturing and assembly processes often propagates and accumulates, resulting in products that do not fulfil functional, esthetical or assembly conditions. Geometrical quality problems are often discovered late with huge cost for changes and delays as a consequence. The ability to simulate and foresee geometry problems early, allows robust concepts to be developed, tolerances and assembly sequences to be optimized and key inspection features to be selected.This paper presents a comprehensive geometry assurance process with an efficient set of tools that supports the geometry assurance process from early concept phases, through verification and pre-production and finally during production.

Method for the cost-efficient and weight-efficient material diversity and partitioning of a carbon fibre composite body structure

A method for the early concept phase is proposed, which is aimed at limiting the financial and performance-related risks when designing a carbon fibre composite automotive body structure. The method manages the structural requirements imposed on the complete body structure and analyses the suitability of different carbon fibre material systems and processes. It also studies whether a high level of material diversity is desirable and the way in which to identify the optimal partition of the body structure from a material system and manufacturing process selection point of view. Furthermore, since composite materials include both laminated materials and quasi-isotropic materials, an approach is presented that enables the comparison of these materials variants during conceptual material selection. A case study exemplifies the method and the results show that, in spite of the cost-sensitive nature of the automotive industry, utilization of the maximum performance of these expensive composite materials is more important than efforts to achieve a rapid manufacturing process.

Gamification in Concept Design: Applying Market Mechanisms to Enhance Innovation and Predict Concept Performance

Abstract Predicting the success of a potential breakthrough innovative business opportunity in New Product Development (NPD) is notoriously difficult and is synonymous with high market and technology risk. As a consequence, NPD organizations favour concurrent exploration of multiple concepts where the most promising concepts are evaluated and selected at each stage-gate. The two challenges associated with this approach are ensuring a sufficiently wide exploration of the market–technology space, followed by assessing the potential of breakthrough innovations. Individual designers usually conduct early exploration independently or within design teams, applying an organic and analogous search approach. In contrast, the project team members collectively make decisions for early design concept selection, applying a non-analytical and unstructured decision-making process. The combination of grounded exploratory study and hypothesis-driven study examines the use of gamification and, in particular, how gamification can assist in promoting the exploration of breakthrough innovative concepts in the early design concept phase, combined with concurrent and early identification of the most promising candidates. Studies conducted consisted of a pilot study at Copenhagen Business School where we identified migration of risk in the business phase and two other studies conducted in the Design Technology and Innovation Management project courses at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea. The last two studies were a baseline study and an experimentation study, where we observed and collected teams’ market and technology risk-preferences, teams’ and external panel’s grading as well as Design Quality Criteria scoring. In the second study, we established the baseline for risk-­preference migration and in the third study we implemented eight weeks of gamification, applying the Prediction Market approach. The findings showed that gamification promotes extended risk-taking, can assess team-confidence and decision-making ability and acts as an early indicator of the performance of the final concepts. Suggestions for future studies include testing of gamification on industry projects and making it operational by adapting the approach to the NPD culture, organizational structures and project decision-making processes.

Invariant Formulation for the Minimum Induced Drag Conditions of Nonplanar Wing Systems

Under the hypotheses of linear potential flow and rigid wake aligned with the freestream, a configuration-invariant analytical formulation for the induced drag minimization of single-wing nonplanar systems is presented. Following a variational approach, the resulting Euler–Lagrange integral equation in the unknown circulation distribution is obtained. The kernel presents a singularity of the first order, and an efficient computational method, ideal for the early conceptual phases of the design, is proposed. Munk’s theorem on the normalwash and its relation with the geometry of the wing under optimal conditions is naturally obtained with the present method. Moreover, Munk’s constant of proportionality, not provided in his original work, is demonstrated to be the ratio between the freestream velocity and the optimal aerodynamic efficiency. The augmented Munk’s minimum induced drag theorem is then formulated. Additional induced drag theorems are demonstrated following the derivations of this invariant procedure. Several nonplanar wing systems are proposed and analyzed, and the optimal induced drag and circulation are provided. The conjecture regarding the equality of the optimum induced drag of a quasi-closed C-wing with the induced drag of the corresponding closed system is also verified for several configurations including the box wing.

The Combined Internal and Principal Parametric Resonances on Continuum Stator System of Asynchronous Machine

With the increasing requirement of quiet electrical machines in the civil and defense industry, it is very significant and necessary to predict the vibration and noise characteristics of stator and rotor in the early conceptual phase. Therefore, the combined internal and principal parametric resonances of a stator system excited by radial electromagnetic force are presented in this paper. The stator structure is modeled as a continuum double-shell system which is loaded by a varying distributed electromagnetic load. The nonlinear dynamic equations are derived and solved by the method of multiple scales. The influences of mechanical and electromagnetic parameters on resonance characteristics are illustrated by the frequency-response curves. Furthermore, the Runge-Kutta method is adopted to numerically analyze steady-state response for the further understanding of the resonance characteristics with different parameters.

Health and safety coordinators in building projects

Purpose – In order to reduce the number of injuries on construction sites, a European Directive prescribes that the clients shall appoint safety and health coordinators in their projects. The purpose of this paper is to find out who are appointed to be health and safety coordinators for the design and planning phase and what they do in order to prevent injuries on sites. Design/methodology/approach – Since the 1st of January 2009, there shall be a coordinator for the design and planning phase in Swedish construction projects. Telephone interviews were made with the coordinators in 42 Swedish building projects. Findings – The coordinators’ education and experiences varied widely, as well as their descriptions of their duties: no duties, administration and active injury prevention. The coordinators who were classified as most active had at least one additional leading role in the projects. Research limitations/implications – The study is qualitative for an increased understanding, not a statistical reflection of the coordinator population. Practical implications – The legislation needs to clarify whether the early conceptual phase of the project is included in the coordinator's commission and whether she/he is supposed to participate in identifying, assessing and reducing risks through design changes. These clarifications will have an influence on when the coordinator should be appointed and what competence she/he needs. Originality/value – The study increases the understanding of how the health and safety coordinators of the planning and projecting phase of building projects perceive their mission and what factors, according to them, have an influence on what they do.

"Integrated Design Process" a Concept for Green Energy Engineering

Consulting Engineers and Architects are currently experimenting with the concept of “Integrated Design Process” (IDP). This paper views Integrated Design Process as a process tool and a concept for management and organization of the green energy engineering process. Moreover such a concept is understood both as systematic knowledge and a symbolic device for enabling change. The paper briefly review international variants, and focus on two variants present in Denmark: an architect and engineering variant of IDP. The differences between the concepts include different roles for main actors, the use of information technology, the relation to lean, and forms of collaboration. The paper discusses two building projects focusing on teams of engineers and architects in the early conceptual phase. One develops a solution focused on energy saving technologies, the other on energy producing. It is argued that in this practical context, IDP is viewed as ambiguous and not well defined, and the architects and engineer work hard understanding and using the concepts even when directly involved. It is difficult to reach consensus on how to do it. The various players agree that an increased interdisciplinary interaction in the design team is necessary in order to comply with the increased complexity of green energy building design. IDP shows potential as a driver for green energy engineering and technologies, as traditional roles and responsibilities in the design process is changed, and sustainable solutions for green buildings can reach a higher standard and quality and are integrated earlier in the design process.

Modeling, validation, and co-design of IBM Blue Gene/Q: Tools and examples

Major architectural innovations in the compute node have been introduced in the IBM Blue Gene®/Q, including programmable Level 1 (L1) cache data prefetching units to hide memory access latency, hardware support for transactional memory (TM) and speculative execution (SE), an enhanced five-dimensional integrated torus network, and a high-performance quad floating-point SIMD (single-instruction, multiple-data) unit. In this paper, we present the tools and methodology that we used to model, co-design, and validate these new features from early concept phase through design implementation. Early in the design cycle, we made extensive use of an architectural simulator, BGQSim, capable of executing unmodified binary Blue Gene/Q code for single as well as multiple nodes. As the hardware description language for the chip implementation became available, we complemented BGQSim with a cycle-accurate and cycle-reproducible, large-scale field-programmable gate array-based platform, Twinstar, to validate the implementation against performance targets and functional specifications. Through specific examples, we show the effectiveness of these tools in co-developing the hardware and software of Blue Gene/Q, allowing us to meet the design targets at an aggressive project schedule.

Computer-aided design versus sketching: An exploratory case study

AbstractThis paper presents a preliminary comparison between the role of computer-aided design (CAD) and sketching in engineering through a case study of a senior design project and interviews with industry and academia. The design team consisted of four senior level mechanical engineering students each with less than 1 year of professional experience are observed while completing an industry sponsored mechanical engineering capstone design project across a 17 week semester. Factors investigated include what CAD tools are used, when in the design process they are implemented, the justification for their use from the students' perspectives, the actual knowledge gained from their use, the impact on the final designed artifact, and the contributions of any sketches generated. At each design step, comparisons are made between CAD and sketching. The students implemented CAD tools at the onset of the project, generally failing to realize gains in design efficiency or effectiveness in the early conceptual phases of the design process. As the design became more concrete, the team was able to recognize clear gains in both efficiency and effectiveness through the use of computer assisted design programs. This study is augmented by interviews with novice and experienced industry users and academic instructors to align the trends observed in the case study with industry practice and educational emphasis. A disconnect in the perceived capability of CAD tools was found between novice and experienced user groups. Opinions on the importance of sketching skills differed between novice educators and novice industry professionals, suggesting that there is a change of opinion as to the importance of sketching formed when recent graduates transition from academia to industry. The results suggest that there is a need to emphasize the importance of sketching and a deeper understanding as to the true utility of CAD tools at each stage of the design process.

COLLECTING MANUFACTURING INFORMATION IN A GLOBAL DISTRIBUTED MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT

Turbochargers Finland carried out a national development project for technology in the years 2005-2007. The aim of the project was to improve efficiency and speed during the early conceptual phases of the design process. An understanding of the capabilities and methods used by the available manufacturers is important when developing product designs. To optimize product function, appearance, and cost; designers must be aware of the available manufacturing technologies and incorporate them from the start into their concepts. To ensure reliable and sustainable product delivery, concepts must be compatible with available fabrication and production methods. For this study, a client ordered a complex sheet metal assembly from two of its contract manufacturers and requested they complete and return a comprehensive set of survey forms related to its manufacturing. The effectiveness and value of this survey approach to increasing knowledge of the contractors’ capabilities and methods is the subject of this paper. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.18.1.1287

Weight Spiral adjusting Lever in Vehicle Engineering

Weight Spiral adjusting Lever in Vehicle Engineering

Case-Based Reasoning for Evolutionary MEMS Design

A knowledge-based computer-aided design tool for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design synthesis called case-based synthesis of MEMS (CaSyn-MEMS) has been developed. MEMS-based technologies have the potential to revolutionize many consumer products and to create new market opportunities in areas such as biotechnology, aerospace, and data communications. However, the commercialization of MEMS still faces many challenges due to a lack of efficient computer-aided design tools that can assist designers during the early conceptual phases of the design process. CaSyn-MEMS combines a case-based reasoning (CBR) algorithm and a MEMS case library with parametric optimization and a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) to synthesize new MEMS design topologies that meet or improve upon a designer’s specifications. CBR is an artificial intelligence methodology that uses past design solutions and adapts them to solve current problems. Having the ability to draw upon past design knowledge is advantageous to MEMS designers, allowing reuse and modification of previously successful designs to accelerate the design process. To enable knowledge reuse, a hierarchical MEMS case library has been created. A reasoning algorithm retrieves cases with solved problems similar to the current design problem. Focusing on resonators as a case study, case retrieval demonstrated an 82% success rate. Using the retrieved cases, approximate design solutions were proposed by first adapting cases with parametric optimization, resulting in a 25% reduction in design area on average while bringing designs within 2% of the frequency goal. In situations where parametric optimization was not sufficient, a more radical design adaptation was performed through the use of MOGA. CBR provided MOGA with good starting points for optimization, allowing efficient convergence to higher quantities of Pareto optimal design concepts while reducing design area by up to 43% and meeting frequency goals within 5%.

Complex service design: A virtual enterprise architecture for logistics service

This paper presents an interdisciplinary systems approach to service modeling, design and deployment. The study is based on a longitudinal case study of the development process of a complex logistic service system based on an advanced logistics model. The case examines the development of a Virtual Enterprise Architecture (VEA) for an automatic high-speed transport and sorting system applied in airports for baggage handling. The study traces the evolution of the system from the early conceptual phases to a successful commercial service deployed at Changi, Singapore Airport. The study is conducted using a retrospective analysis of the case using a design science research approach. The paper evaluates and discusses the issues of creating and designing a new complex logistics service, distinct from the physical product, based on an advanced discrete event-based simulation model. The paper concludes by presenting a generalized and validated conceptual framework for a VEA based on an advanced simulation model. The paper thus contributes to the field of service systems and service management by identifying a novel approach to effective design of a new service.

Efficiency measures for SOC concepts

This paper discusses efficiency measures for the evaluation of high performance systems on a chip (SOC), considering a throughput rate R, chip size A, power dissipation P, and a flexibility criterion F. Based on the analysis of recently published multimedia chips, the paper shows equivalences between the ratio of R over AP, a weighted sum on 1/R, A, P, and a fuzzy multicriteria analysis on R, A, P. The paper indicates the fuzzy multicriteria analysis as generalization of the other efficiency measures, which can be easily extended to multiple cost and performance criteria. Because of the application of fuzzy set theory, the multicriteria approach supports quantitative criteria with a physical background as well as qualitative criteria by linguistic variables. Uncertainties at early conceptual phases are considered by a possibilistic measure, which is based on fuzzy set theory.

Design and calculation of exhaust systems in the conception phase

Due to the ever shorter developmental cycles in the design of new models, it is important to be able to quickly make statements about the behaviour of components in operation when changes are made during the early conceptual phase of cars. Such statements can normally be made only through the use of CAE techniques. This article will examine the early, systematic creation of exhaust system models at Volkswagen. The main subject is the validated modular and, consequently, easily modifiable design of a conceptual model of the system. Further, possible uses of the calculations of this model will be described.

Design of experiments for the development of large engines

Today the application of numerical analysis already in the early phases of engine design and development has been established as a standard. Making use of the Design of Experiments methodology enables the analyst to greatly enhance the significance of calculation result obtained in the early concept phase of large engine design. This article from AVL List describes how the DoE methodology is employed to increase the significance of cranktrain analysis results obtained during concept design. The results allow to find optimum crankshaft dimensions, without sacrificing component durability.

Constructability Concepts in Kuala Selangor Cable-Stayed Bridge in Malaysia

The writers formulated a case study of the Kuala Selangor Cable Stayed Bridge to examine the application of the constructability concepts particularly during the conceptual planning and the design phases of the project. This paper presents the advantages of implementing the constructability concepts and the barriers that were encountered when applying these concepts during the planning and design phases of the cable stayed bridge project of Kuala Selangor in Malaysia. The writers concluded that barriers to constructability implementation that are related to the owner were the major impediments in the application of constructability concepts during the early conceptual planning phase. The opinion of the engineer was another factor behind nonapplication of some other concepts. At the same time, many others were implemented due to the awareness and opinion of the engineer and his ability to control their application.

Systems Engineering Effectiveness: A Complexity Point Paradigm for Software Intensive Systems in the Information Technology Sector

:The ability to assess systems engineering effectiveness within organizations is receiving increasing emphasis. Most of the published research has been generic and domain independent. This article describes a technique to (1) estimate the cost and schedule of projects at an early concept phase, and (2) determine the effectiveness and efficiency of using systems engineering methods and practices on large integration projects in the information technology (IT) sector. A method based on the complexity point concept has been developed and is discussed. This technique has been validated on a number of IT integration projects. Resulting observations are presented in this article. Results do not provide conclusive evidence that systems engineering (on its own) enhanced productivity on specific projects. However, preliminary information indicates that application of formal systems engineering practices and methods, in conjunction with effective project management and test processes, can significantly improve development and integration productivity.

Pro-active Life Cycle Engineering Support Tools

The extending responsibility of manufacturers regarding their products' environmental impact has led to the development of a wide range of Life Cycle Engineering tools and techniques. However, their efficiency has yet been limited by the need for detailed input data, typically unavailable in the early conceptual phases of design, when most far-reaching improvements can be achieved. This problem particularly holds true in a design environment of one-of-a-kind products, such as in many automation and machine design projects, where no previous generation products are available to provide the required analysis feedback. This paper presents a set of pro-active support tools that are specifically developed for the early design phases and cover the analytical as well as the creative steps of design. On the one hand, Eco-Cost Estimation Relationships form the core of the Eco-PaS system, which estimates the technical parameters, needed as input for most assessment tools, as a function of the functional parameters available in the concept development phase. On the other hand, the Ecodesign Knowledge System classifies both knowledge and user situations according to a common set of domain models in order to supply, at any time, adequate Life Cycle Engineering guidance, tailored to the specific user situation.