Product design elements as means to realise functions in mechanical conceptual design

This paper describes the research work on the establishment of a new design support approach of generating feasible design solutions in terms of Product Design Elements according to functional requirements of mechanical artefacts using design context knowledge. Traditionally a concept or a principle solution is evaluated & selected on the basis of desired functional requirement only, neglecting the consequences of selection on the performance of other life cycle phases as well as neglecting other knowledge generated during execution of design process. This approach causes problems at later product realization stages in terms of cost & time incurred due to redesign of product. This research introduces a new meaning to term 'Feature' as Product Design Elements and presents a novel approach of how these Product Design Elements can be used to realise functions in mechanical conceptual design. For this purpose a generic Function to PDE mapping model has been developed and is applied to mechanical component conceptual design decision making for the selection of best solution as a Product Design Element keeping in view both the functional requirements and design context knowledge consequences, thus proactively supporting conceptual design.