Engineering Design Notes III

Conceptual Design
EE 498/499 Capstone Design Classes
Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer
Engineering

Topics

Overview
Definitions
Conceptual Design Steps
Activity Analysis
Concept Generation
Analysis and Feasibility
Evaluation Methods
Documentation

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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Overview
Specification

The Conceptual Design is

the first part of the design
process after the
specifications have been
determined.
This is to act as the
intellectual exercise to
generate ways
accomplishing the actual
design.
This step is successful if we
have at least one feasible
alternative to work with
when we are done.

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Establish functional
requirements
Determine design
constraints
Determine acceptance
criteria

Generate
Alternatives

Create alternative
solutions to realize
Specifications

Analyze
Alternatives

How well do the

alternative designs meet
the Specifications

Redesign
iteration

Feasible Alternatives

Evaluate
Alternatives

Perform numeric
comparison of the
alternatives and the
quality of their meeting
Specifications
Fabrication specification
for the best alternative

Design Process Version I

Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Definitions

What is the Conceptual Design process? It is

the generation of design alternatives or
Design Concepts and the supporting analysis
to determine the feasibility of each
alternative.
What is a Design Concept? It is a design
alternative that includes at least one physical
principle and one abstract embodiment.

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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Definitions

What is a physical principle? This is a natural

law or effect that produces a useable method
of modifying a signal or device to produce a
functional output. For example, the
photoelectric effect is a physical principle that
produces a current in proportion to the
intensity of the incident light.
An abstract embodiment is a diagram that
shows the relative relationship between the
actors in the design. It need not be to scale.

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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Definitions

Design Element Physical

Principle

Embodiment
Method

Energy
Generation

Solar Cells

Examples

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Photoelectric
Effect
Nuclear Power
Combustion

Reactor
Furnace

Data
RF
Communications Optical
Wire

Radio/modem
Laser/detector
Wiring harness

Energy Storage

Battery

Chemical
Storage

Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Definitions

The Conceptual Design Diagram is

A diagram with the Design Concept,

Including the physical principles being used, and
The abstract embodiment.

This is basically a block diagram or extended

sketch with the necessary aspect labeled.
Note: systems usually need to have individual
Conceptual Design Diagrams for the
component subsystems rather than all-in-one
diagrams.

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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Definitions

Example: Develop a Conceptual Design Diagram for

a communications system composed of a modem,
RF transmission unit, and antenna.
Note, actual components not specified at this level.
Potential Physical Principles that can be considered:
RF, Optical, or Wire harness communications.
Here, we consider the Conceptual Design Diagram
for the RF option. The RF embodiment is based on
a RF unit and a modem. The following diagram
shows the Concept.

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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Definitions

Communications Conceptual Design Diagram

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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Conceptual Design Steps

The proper Conceptual Design Process has

the following stages:

Activity Analysis: how will the design be used in

various stages such as normal use, battery
recharging, disposal, start-up and shutdown, etc.,
as appropriate for the needs.
Generate Alternative Concepts: the design
team uses various strategies to generate
Concepts that should meet the design
requirements.

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Conceptual Design Steps

Conceptual Design Process (cont.)

Analyze: use engineering analysis, simulation,

bench testing, etc. to verify that the design
concept does work to meet the specifications.
Feasibility Test: does the design analysis
indicate that the design concept will meet the
specifications and actually can per executed.
Evaluate: determine which one or set of the
feasible design concepts left are best (at least at
the level we can tell at this time).

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Activity Analysis

The Activity Analysis stage really is an

exercise to determine how the design
meeting the specifications is to be used in
real life. This includes user activities and
understanding the inputs and outputs
(signals, power, etc.).
To do this activity, you will need to perform a
functional decomposition and an I/O
analysis.

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Activity Analysis

The functional decomposition takes the design

functional requirements and refines them respective
subfunctions and sub-subfunctions.
The functions are not broken down by expected
embodiments but by similar functions.

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Activity Analysis

The I/O analysis looks at the control, data, and

power signals coming into and out of a function.
This will become a basis for the designs Interface
Control Document that specifies and documents all
interface details.

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Activity Analysis

Comms Example Functional

Decomposition

Antenna

Transmit Frequency
Receive Frequency

Set Frequencies
Set Power

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Waveform Processing
Computer Control
Set Baud rate
Set comms parameters

Buffer data

RF signal in
RF signal out

RF Unit

Modem unit

Antenna

Transmit Electronics
Receive Electronics
Computer Control

Comms Example I/O

Analysis

RF unit

Computer interface
RF signal in
RF signal out
Signal from modem in
Signal to modem out
Power

Modem unit

Design Notes III - Conceptual Design

Signal from RF in
Signal to RF out
Computer interface
Power

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Activity Analysis

Activity Analysis results:

An assessment of which functions can be

combined
A check-off to ensure that all required functions
are addressed
An understanding of the required interfaces
A possibility that the design requirements may
need to be reviewed and iterated upon to update
them.

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Concept Generation

The design team uses various strategies to

generate Concepts that should meet the
design requirements.
This is also sometimes called synthesis.
Use brainstorming, past experience, similar
designs, Google searches, WAGs,
sleeping on it, etc.
This process may take some time!

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Analysis and Feasibility

Analyze: use engineering analysis,

simulation, bench testing, etc. to verify that
the design concept does work to meet the
specifications.
Feasibility Test: does the design analysis
indicate that the design concept will meet the
specifications and actually can per executed.
From the analysis and testing, we should also
eliminate those designs that cant be built,
would cost too much, etc.

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Evaluation Methods

Once the design concepts are generated and

evaluated for feasibility, the surviving design
concepts need to be evaluated to determine which
one is best.
How does one define best?
One common method is to use the criteria for the
design and weight the relative importance to
determine best.
Note: the designers must be careful not to rig the
weighting to make a favorite come out best.

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Evaluation Methods

Weighted Evaluation Method:

Select the evaluation criteria and place in column 1 of a

matrix.
Importance weights are assigned to each criterion and
placed in column 2 of the matrix.
The concepts to be evaluated are placed in subsequent
columns of the matrix.
Each concept is rates against the criteria and a score of 0
to 4 is given. A 0 implies unsatisfactory performance while
a 4 is implies very good performance.
Each score is multiplied by the weighting factor and the
scores are summed. Highest weighted score wins.

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Evaluation Methods
Concept Alternatives
External COTS Modem
Criteria

Importance
Weight (%)

Rating

Weighted
Rating

DSP Modem

Internal Modem

Rating

Weighted
Rating

Rating

Weighted
Rating

Operating current

30

1.20

0.60

0.90

Physical Size

25

1.00

0.75

0.75

Mass

20

0.80

0.60

0.40

Cost

15

0.30

0.60

0.45

Buffer Capacity

10

0.20

0.40

0.30

100

3.50

2.95

2.80

Example evaluation matrix.

Notice, functional requirements are not included because it is
assumed that all design concepts meet the testable
requirements. This is for the intangibles or more subjective
criteria. Testable requirements with varying degrees of
performance can also be included.

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Documentation

At the end of the Conceptual Design stage,

the following documents should be part of the
design documentation, at a minimum:

Operations Concept document

Conceptual Design Diagram
Function Decomposition
I/O Analysis
Design Analysis showing that Conceptual Design
meets requirements
Design Evaluation matrix

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Documentation

Additional documents that can be started at

this stage include:

Budgets: mass, size, link analysis, power, etc.

Start considering how the various components will
be integrated and tested. Integration and test
plans can be started.

Note, in some cases, these will be no more

than outlines with placeholder sections to be
developed further.

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