A Hierarchical Core Reference Ontology for New Technology Insertion Design in Long Life Cycle, Complex Mission Critical Systems

Organizations, including government, commercial and others, face numerous challenges in maintaining and upgrading long life-cycle, complex, mission critical systems. Maintaining and upgrading these systems requires the insertion and integration of new technology to avoid obsolescence of hardware software, and human skills, to improve performance, to maintain and improve security, and to extend useful life. This is particularly true of information technology (IT) intensive systems. The lack of a coherent body of knowledge to organize new technology insertion theory and practice is a significant contributor to this difficulty. This research organized the existing design, technology road mapping, obsolescence, and sustainability literature into an ontology of theory and application as the foundation for a technology design and technology insertion design hierarchical core reference ontology and laid the foundation for body of knowledge that better integrates the new technology insertion problem into the technology design architecture

Validation Framework for RDF-based Constraint Languages

In this thesis, a validation framework is introduced that enables to consistently execute RDF-based constraint languages on RDF data and to formulate constraints of any type. The framework reduces the representation of constraints to the absolute minimum, is based on formal logics, consists of a small lightweight vocabulary, and ensures consistency regarding validation results and enables constraint transformations for each constraint type across RDF-based constraint languages

A systematic approach for integrated product, materials, and design-process design

Designers are challenged to manage customer, technology, and socio-economic uncertainty causing dynamic, unquenchable demands on limited resources. In this context, increased concept flexibility, referring to a designer s ability to generate concepts, is crucial. Concept flexibility can be significantly increased through the integrated design of product and material concepts. Hence, the challenge is to leverage knowledge of material structure-property relations that significantly affect system concepts for function-based, systematic design of product and materials concepts in an integrated fashion. However, having selected an integrated product and material system concept, managing complexity in embodiment design-processes is important. Facing a complex network of decisions and evolving analysis models a designer needs the flexibility to systematically generate and evaluate embodiment design-process alternatives. In order to address these challenges and respond to the primary research question of how to increase a designer s concept and design-process flexibility to enhance product creation in the conceptual and early embodiment design phases, the primary hypothesis in this dissertation is embodied as a systematic approach for integrated product, materials and design-process design. The systematic approach consists of two components i) a function-based, systematic approach to the integrated design of product and material concepts from a systems perspective, and ii) a systematic strategy to design-process generation and selection based on a decision-centric perspective and a value-of-information-based Process Performance Indicator. The systematic approach is validated using the validation-square approach that consists of theoretical and empirical validation. Empirical validation of the framework is carried out using various examples including: i) design of a reactive material containment system, and ii) design of an optoelectronic communication system.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Allen, Janet K.; Committee Member: Aidun, Cyrus K.; Committee Member: Klein, Benjamin; Committee Member: McDowell, David L.; Committee Member: Mistree, Farrokh; Committee Member: Yoder, Douglas P

Implementation of design for environment principles in product development using a case study on the design of a passenger car door

Product design is a complex process that requires design engineers taking into consideration а number of factors simultaneously. Though the primary aim is to fulfil a given function in a cost effective manner, in recent years considerable emphasis has been placed on designing products that result in minimal negative environmental impact. In the past, research has focussed on developing tools that assist designers in selecting suitable materials and manufacturing processes in the early stages of product design itself. A correct choice of materials can have a significant impact on promoting Design for Environment (DfE) and determining suitable End of Life (EoL) strategies such as recycling, reuse and remanufacture. This dissertation highlights the importance of implementing design aspects such as Design for Assembly (DfA) and Design for Disassembly (DfD). Included is a case study which illustrates the benefits of implementing DfD in the design of a passenger car door. Through a prudent selection of suitable materials, manufacturing processes and also joining and dismantling techniques, the overall sustainability of the product can been increased. It is seen that in order to incorporate DfE principles in product design, the designers must deal with vast amounts of data simultaneously. Dealing with such large quantities of data can be tricky. This dissertation proposes arranging materials, manufacturing processes and assembly and disassembly techniques in the form of an ontology so that designers can have access to design information in a systematic and precise format. The principles to construct a DfE tool that assists design engineers not only select suitable materials, manufacturing processes and assembly/disassembly methods, but also helps analyse every stage of the product’s life and measure its impact on the environment during the initial stages of design itself have been provided in this dissertation