Objective
Many researches in the field of engineering indicate that an important part of the cost of a product is being committed during the design phase and more specifically during the early stage of the design process. Decisions made at the conceptual design stag e have important influence on factors such as cost, performance, reliability, safety and environmental impact of a product. For these reasons, companies and researchers have already put more emphasis on the conceptual design process. Many methodologies and guidelines have been developed in order to assist the different phases of the conceptual design process. Those methods remain unsatisfactory on the scientific point of view because of their poor degree of measurability and repeatability when having to dea l with the evaluation, the comparison of the different concepts of solutions, and the degree in which they meet the initial list of requirements. The conceptual design activity is lacking from a unified framework being able to treat the multidisciplinary a nd interdisciplinary aspects of design. Based on this analysis the candidate has developed during his PhD a coherent conceptual design methodology able to model the life cycle design process, to compare, to rank and to evaluate concepts of solutions quant itatively and qualitatively. Its scientific background is coming from General Design Theory and dimensional analysis theory. This method has been successfully tested in automation problems. A complete scientific procedure requires a more extensive experime ntation process with case studies coming from various fields of engineering. In addition, the methodology needs to be implemented in a computer program and to be coupled with a quantitative database in order to use its entire potential. The variety of the industrial contacts gathered by the host institution, the laboratory of Machine Design at HUT and the professional skills of its staff will be helpful in supporting the candidate's objectives.
Fields of science
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP6-2004-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European FellowshipsCoordinator
ESPOO
Finland