Industrial best practices of conceptual process design

To assess the expected clinical and financial benefits of rapid reporting of microbiology results, we compared patients whose cultured samples were processed in the normal manner to patients whose samples were processed more rapidly due to a minor change in work flow. For the samples tested in the rapid-reporting time period, the vast majority of bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) results were verified with the Vitek system on the same day that they were available. This time period was called rapid AST (RAST). For RAST, a technologist on the evening shift verified the data that became available during that shift. For the control time period, cultures were processed in the normal manner (normal AST [NAST]), which did not include evening-shift verification. For NAST, the results for approximately half of the cultures were verified on the first day that the result was available. The average turnaround time for the reporting of AST results was 39.2 h for RAST and 44.4 h for NAST (5.2 h faster for RAST [P = 0.001]). Subsequently, physicians were able to initiate appropriate antimicrobial therapy sooner for patients whose samples were tested as part of RAST (P = 0.006). The mortality rates were 7. 9 and 9.6% for patients whose samples were tested as part of RAST and NAST, respectively (P = 0.45). The average length of stay was 10. 7 days per patient for RAST and 12.6 days for NAST, a difference of 2.0 days less for RAST (P = 0.006). The average variable cost was $4, 927 per patient for RAST and $6,677 for NAST, a difference of $1,750 less per patient for RAST (P = 0.001). This results in over $4 million in savings in variable costs per year in our hospital.

The objective of this research project is the development of a second generation in-duct sorbent injection technology as a cost-effective compliance option for the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Research focused on the Advanced Coolside Process, which has shown the potential of exceeding the performance targets of 90% SO{sub 2} removal and 60% sorbent utilization. In Task 5, Conceptual Process Design and Economic Evaluation, the economics of the CONSOL Advanced Coolside Process as a Clean Air Act compliance option were evaluated. A conceptual process design for full-scale, coal-fired applications is described. Advanced Coolside is compared to conventional Limestone Forced Oxidation (LSFO) wet FGD technology. The process economics for coal sulfur levels ranging from 1.0% to 3.5% (as-received) and plant sizes ranging from 160 to 512 gross MW were investigated, In addition, the economics of on-site versus off-site lime hydration and the cost sensitivity to delivered pebble lime and hydrate prices are investigated, Advanced in-duct sorbent injection enjoys a capital and levelized cost advantage relative to LSFO in all cases examined in this study. As a result of this study and others made during this contract, the following conclusions can be made: (1) The capital cost of Advanced Coolside is 55% to 60% less than that of LSFO and varies slightly depending on coal sulfur content and plant size. (2) The total levelized SO{sub 2} control cost advantage relative to LSFO varies from 15% to 35% over the range of coal sulfur contents and plant sizes evaluated. This cost advantage is sensitive to sorbent transportation charges. As a result, the economics are site-specific. (3) The experimental optimizations based on interim economic analyses were the key to capital and levelized cost reductions.

Empirical sizing guidelines such as tail volume coefficients have long been used in the early aircraft design phases for sizing stabilizers, resulting in conservatively stable aircraft. While successful, this results in increased empty weight, reduced performance, and greater procurement and operational cost relative to an aircraft with optimally sized surfaces. Including flight dynamics in the conceptual design process allows the design to move away from empirical methods while implementing modern control techniques. A challenge of flight dynamics and control is the numerous design variables, which are changing fluidly throughout the conceptual design process, required to evaluate the system response to some disturbance. This research focuses on addressing that challenge not by implementing higher order tools, such as computational fluid dynamics, but instead by linking the lower order tools typically used within the conceptual design process so each discipline feeds into the other. In thisresearch, flight dynamics and control was incorporated into the conceptual design process along with the traditional disciplines of vehicle sizing, weight estimation, aerodynamics, and performance. For the controller, a linear quadratic regulator structure with constant gains has been specified to reduce the user input. Coupling all the disciplines in the conceptual design phase allows the aircraft designer to explore larger design spaces where stabilizers are sized according to dynamic response constraints rather than historical static margin and volume coefficient guidelines.

Genetics-based design is an effective approach to develop novel products for conceptual design. It could reduce innovation blindness by providing logically structured procedure. However, the major challenge of genetics-based engineering method is that how to identify what information is genetic information and how to use it in a conceptual design process. To solve this problem, this article proposes a conceptual design method driven by product genes. First, a functional expansion model is established based on analyzing the conceptual design process. Second, to respectively compare the functions and structure schemes in the model to biological traits and proteins, a product gene definition composed of behaviors and attributes is put forward. Then, a modeling and coding method of product genes is given analogous to that of biological genes. Third, operation technologies of product genes are analyzed, including breakdown, crossover, recombination, transcription, and translation. Based on this, a conceptual design method driven by product genes is advanced. Finally, an example shows that this method is able to extract key information of products and gives a method of how to use the information in a conceptual design process. Moreover, structure schemes obtained through this method are of high feasibility and have more possibilities of innovation.

In industrial practice, conceptual process design is typically conducted by repetitive simulation studies, which require detailed design specifications in an early design phase. Guided by heuristics, these iterative solution procedures result in high manual effort and, in addition, no guarantee concerning the quality of the solution can be given. Optimization-based design methods provide a tremendous potential to accelerate and improve conceptual process design. For this purpose, a synthesis framework for the optimization-based design of chemical processes is presented in this thesis. Powerful shortcut and rigorous evaluation methods for reaction and distillation are presented. These methods are computationally efficient in order to allow an optimization-based design of large-scale chemical processes. Various industrial case studies illustrate the application of the novel approaches and highlight their benefits. ...

An expert system for the conceptual design of bridges

In this paper, we consider the operating and capital expenditure (CAPEX) costs of solar-powered additions to infrastructure that is operated from the power grid. The CAPEX costs are those associated with provisioning the solar power components, and are selected using an offline design optimization. Once the solar add-on is designed and deployed, the node incurs ongoing operating expenditure (OPEX) costs associated with the purchase of power grid energy. Lower bounds on cost are derived using a linear programming formulation, where the solar power components are sized using historical solar insolation traces and projected loading data. Different node add-on arrangements are considered, which result in various solar/battery and grid configurations. Three energy scheduling algorithms are then introduced to optimize online OPEX costs. A variety of results are presented that show the extent to which a solar-powered add-on can reduce the total cost. These results also show that the proposed algorithms give performance that is close to the lower bounds in many situations.

As design requirements and affordability for future aircraft become increasingly demanding, aircraft design processes will be required to explore a larger design space and capture multi-disciplinary effects during conceptual design to effectively assess the benefits of new technologies. Lockheed Martin is currently participating in the ESAVE (Efficient Supersonic Air Vehicle Exploration) AFRL program which is developing MDO-based improvements to the fighter strike conceptual design process. This paper discusses the program progress to date of both conceptual design process improvements for fighter/strike aircraft and the application of the resultant MDO process to a specific design problem. The fighter/strike design process involves many coupled discipline interactions due to demanding mission performance requirements. The ESAVE program has focused on capturing the discipline interactions required for the active structures and variable cycle engine technologies. Initial results demonstrate that integration of these structural and propulsion technologies in an MDO-based framework expands the traditional fighter/strike design space and can potentially provide significant performance improvements compared to conventional conceptual design processes.

The major concern in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is time, cost, and quality. The design for industrial building project usually complex, particularly in a field of mechanical and piping process due to the large involvement of project stakeholders. The case company, which is the specialist supplier of industrial piping solution in Thailand, reported the issue of redesigns regarding to their poor project management of conceptual design process in construction project that effect to their work performance and customer satisfaction. Thus, the purpose of this study was to improve the process of conceptual design using project management concept to reduce the number of redesign in the conceptual design phase for storm drainage design projects. The new conceptual design process was introduced in 4 stages-Initialization, Identification, Translation, and Specification. These stages were clearly defined their input, process (with project management plans, tools and techniques such as checklist, tree diagram, 3D model system and expert judgment), and output.
 
 This was validated with 30 pilot projects of storm drainage design in factories and warehouses. The results revealed that, the total number of redesign was reduced from 102 to 24 under the satisfied of company?s KPI. In addition, the total cost of redesign was decreased form THB 1,326,000 to THB 31,200. Furthermore, the total design time from the start to finish the specification output was reduced from 327 days to 212 days. Therefore, the proposed solution was proved to be practical and fully implemented by the company.

The car industry is very large, and the designs are usually evolutionary in character with much convergence of approaches and technology. Car stylists play a particular role in the concept stage of the design process. Key parts of their work have proved incompatible with computer-aided design (CAD) support, despite its advantages. The primary objective of the work described has been to devise techniques that provide effective CAD support for the stylists' concept design processes, without inhibiting the fluidity and richness of a sketch-based approach. Various methods for doing this have been developed and used by stylists and design students. The work on sketch mapping as a usable tool is described, and is contrasted with the more conventional direct modelling approach that is seen to have limitations. There is a brief description of work in progress on deriving forms directly from sketches. The extension of the resources available to support concept design through the use of non-concept scanning technology is described, and initial experiments illustrated. As a conclusion there is the outline proposal for a hybrid technique combining conventional sketches, sketch mapping, sketch modelling and non-contact scanning techniques.

Conceptual process design as a prerequisite for solving environmental problems; a case study of molybdenum removal and recovery from wastewater

In current day’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) are widely used in every field, almost from military till the commercial purpose. Usage of UAV has decreased the burden on the human, where the manpower and risks during critical conditions (war fields) are reduced. Therefore the demand for the development of the unmanned aerial Vehicle is high. Interpreting the conceptual design data of UAV is difficult because of lack of availability of their data sheets. This paper is addressed to develop a conceptual design process of high-performance UAV, which carries a maximum payload of about 300kg and can travel for the maximum range 900km/hrs. For about 50 hours of maximum endurance. Where these three parameters are considered as the main requirements. By drawing constraint diagram, feasible design space for the aircraft was frozen; using which initial sizing of the wing, wing airfoil selection, and a suitable power-plant selection was done. Fuselage design was carried out looking at the available literature on the existing aircrafts. Propeller design was done to match the thrust requirements obtained from the constraint diagram. Empennage design was done to achieve the desired static margin of the aircraft. This process completes the conceptual design of UAV, where designed aircraft meets the requirement. The outcome of this paper enhances the understanding of the conceptual design process for the academicians as well as the researchers.

In order to reduce the risks and uncertainties in conceptual design of submarine rescue vehicle (SRV), the paper proposed a risk-based conceptual design method, which consisted of three focus areas: problem setup, risk assessment, risk mitigation and decision support. Conventional risk assessment tools (e.g. probability risk assessment) were not suited for initial design because of lack of data, and a safety analysis model using fuzzy-logic approach employing fuzzy IF-THEN rules was introduced to carry out risk analysis in conceptual design. Subsequently, it was investigated that the main risky factors which influenced system risk in initial design were technology level of SRV, safety of SRV, task complexity, investment and repayment. And then a risk analysis model for submarine rescue vehicle was introduced. Lastly a case was studied to demonstrate the application of the model, and the results showed that it was an effective way to reduce the risks and uncertainties in conceptual design process.

To support automatic requirements mining and concept design for engineering designers, we proposed a knowledge-based method called D-mapping (Design Mapping). In our method, the design problem-solving processes are represented as mappings between functional and physical domains. For requirements mining, the earliest process of concept design, mappings take place inside the functional domain, and thus it is a self-mapping process. For physical architecture design, the later process of concept design, mappings take place between the functional and physical domains, and thus it is a cross-domain mapping process. We built a knowledge-based expert system to assist designers in those processes. The knowledge base of our expert system is based on amounts of Chinese patent texts and built using natural language processing technologies. The knowledge inference engine of our expert system is constructed based on various machine learning algorithms. The proposed method and the system can be proved to be novel and effective in case studies.

Conceptual chemical process design in a sustainable technological world