Lecture 3: Sustainable Engineering Design Flashcards
Definition of Engineering Design
Method used to identify and solve problems in design of an industrial product.
What are the 8 steps to Engineering Design?
1) Define problem
2) Background research
3) Specify requirements
4) Brainstorm, Evaluate and Choose solution
5) Develop and Prototype solution
6) Test solution
7) Check solution against requirements
8) Communicate results
What is the difference between Engineering design and Product design?
Engineering Design applies to industrial products such as cars, planes, factories, machines etc.
Product Design is used to develop concepts and focuses on user needs.
What is the difference between a reactive and proactive approach to lifecycle thinking?
A traditional reactive approach takes the energy and materials at end of life and injects this into the material prep., production and use.
A contemporary proactive approach takes the knowledge and information from end of life and uses it to design for better lifecycle use.
What percentage of environmental impact of a product is decided during the design phase?
90%
What is the difference between product design, eco-design and sustainable design?
Product Design: Economic, Functional, Aesthetic and Safety Issues
Eco-Design: Add Environmental Issues
Sustainable Design: Add Social and Ethical Issues
What are the key eco-design considerations?
- Use less material and more environmental materials, not toxic or hazardous
- Choose cleaner processes
- Maximise energy and water efficiencies
- Produce less pollution and waste
- Reduce distribution impacts
- Optimise functionality and extend service life
- Make re-use and recycling easier
- Reduce environmental impact of disposal
What are the key Sustainable design considerations?
- Fulfilling socially acceptable demand
- Meeting user needs
- Support local economy and job creation
- Respect relevant standards and policies such as CSR
- Rely on socially acceptable supply chain
- Shift consumption mode from personal ownership to provision of services (Transmaterialisation)
- Fair trade
- Cruelty free work
- Equality
What is Design for Disassembly?
- Considering the ease of disassembly in the design of a product
- Consider: simple structure, modular, easy part separation, reversible methods of fastening, dismantling without force, easy recognition of disassembly point
What are the common sources of complexity in disassembling products?
- Accessibility by hand or tool
- Positioning precision required by hand or tool
- Time needed
- Force required
- Non-standard tools needed
What are some examples of products produced with Sustainable Design?
- Hippo Roller (Barrel of recycled materials with tapered edges and a push handle to allow easy rolling across rough terrain to carry water in LEDC’s)
- Heineken RE-BEER concept (Pressure valve at bottom of bottle allows it to be refilled with carbonised beer)
- Flying-V Plane (Uses 20% less fuel than most efficient plane of today)
- Ford C-MAX Solar Energi Concept (Solar panel on sunroof)
How many planet are needed to sustain the ecological footprint of the world to have zero impact on the environment?
3-5
How does the cost of fossil fuels compare to wind and solar?
Fossil fuels cost half of wind and 1/5 of solar.
How much of the water in the world is consumable?
0.5%, 97% is saline and 2.5% is frozen
How much water is used for agricultural purposes?
70-80%
