Conference-2009-DETC-Information Generation Abstract
From Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research
|
[edit] Citation
Mathieson, J., Sen, C., Summers, J., (2009), “Information Generation through the Design Process: Student Project Case Study”, ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers in Engineering Conference, San Diego, CA, Aug. 30-Sep. 2, 2009, CIE-DETC2009-87359.
[edit] Abstract
This paper proposes and demonstrates a protocol for measuring information generated through a design process. The intent is to provide a consistent approach to allow the equivalent comparison of different design procedures and processes. The proposed method divides the design process into requirement, function, and component domains occurring within design iterations. To measure information or complexity in each of these domains, elements are counted, within-domain-coupling (WDC) assessed, and across-domain-coupling (ADC) calculated. The results of the demonstrations show that the proposed protocol and information metrics produce data points of comparable order across all domains under different design situations. Furthermore, it is shown that within-domain-coupling and across-domain-coupling should be corrected for the inflating effect of element count. When this correction is applied, it is observed that across-domain-coupling displays a decaying process of converging and diverging towards a steady state level. This presents possible support for the concepts of modeling the design process as a series of convergent and divergent processes while also suggesting that such oscillation may not be necessary.
corresponding author [Joshua D. Summers]
