An Integrated Approach to Information Modeling for the Sustainable Design of Products

Published

August 7, 2013

Author(s)

Paul W. Witherell, Douglas Eddy, Ian Grosse, Sundar Krishnamurty

Abstract

The design process for more sustainable products can be best accomplished in a tradeoff-based design process that can methodically handle conflicting objectives, such as, environmental impact, cost, and product performance. Also, regulations, as represented within sustainability standards, need to be met to ensure the compliance of a product design. The emergence of the semantic web further provides an interoperable environment in which the context and meaning of knowledge about the relationships among various domains can be shared. This work presents an ontological framework designed to represent both the objectives that pertain to sustainable design and the applicable sustainability standards and regulations. This integrated approach not only can ease the adoption of the standards and regulations during a design process but can also influence a design toward sustainability considerations. The usefulness of this model integration is demonstrated by an illustrative brake disk rotor and pads case study. The results show that both the standards and criteria may be considered at early design stages by using this methodology. Furthermore, it can be used to capture, reveal, and propagate the design intent transparently to all design participants.

Proceedings Title

ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC) and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (CIE)

Conference Dates

August 4-7, 2013

Conference Location

Portland, OR

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

sustainable product design, ontology, engineering design, LCA, sustainability standards

Citation

Witherell, P. , Eddy, D. , Grosse, I. and Krishnamurty, S. (2013), An Integrated Approach to Information Modeling for the Sustainable Design of Products, ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC) and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (CIE), Portland, OR, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913248 (Accessed December 2, 2024)