Concurrent Engineering: Tools and Technologies for Mechanical System Design

This book presents a coherent development of the emerging field of Concurrent Engineering, focusing specifically on mechanical system design and the basic disciplines that comprise the field. The book is divided into five main parts. Basic concepts and methods for integration of multiple disciplines into an integrated product and manufacturing process design environment are presented in Part 1. Technical aspects peculiar to automotive, aerospace, and naval system design are then presented in Part 2, in the context of a Concurrent Engineering approach to mechanical system design. The critically important contributing disciplines of manufacturing, design sensitivity analysis, and design optimization are treated in Parts 3 and 4. Finally, in Part 5, the emerging field of virtual prototyping for design of operator machine systems is developed. The contributions to the book are based on lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Iowa City in June 1992. Each part starts with a paper based on an invited lecture and continues with papers based on contributed presentations.