Introduction to Mechanical

Design

Welcome to the Design World!!

Gyung-Jin Park
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Syllabus
What is Design?

Think!!!!!!
Homework: Survey what the design is.
Present your opinion about design.

Due: next week

An Early Aspiration of Humans: Fly like a bird!
Leonardo's Flying Machine
Leonardo's Flying Machine
Leonardo's Flying Machine
What was wrong with these ideas?
 They lacked “Functional Thinking”!

They tried to imitate the “physical feature” of

the bird.

They should have thought about the “FUNCTIONS”

a flying machine must satisfy!
 Your future role as leaders:

You will deal with

-- i.e, design, lead, correct, analyze --
systems of various different kinds.
Systems of interest:

• machines
• universities
• software systems
• airplanes
• biological systems
• social systems
• factories
• Hanyang University
• robots
Two basic approaches in dealing with systems

• Analysis -- scientific reductionism, modeling,

simulation, etc.
– Taught in physics, mathematics, etc.

• Synthesis (design) -- creating a new system

– Often in the absence of prior examples

• Before you can analyze a system, you

have to design it first. Sometimes we
analyze an existing system to determine
what is wrong with and how to improve it.
If you have a system that is poorly designed, it
may result in the following system failures:

• Crash of airplanes, bridges, etc.

• Failure of nuclear reactors
• Poor products
• Social systems that often break down
• Short life
• High manufacturing cost
• High cost for maintenance
• Inefficient engines
• etc.
 Leaders must know how to “DESIGN”
systems.

Properly designed systems satisfy many

different functional requirements (FRs)
within a given set of constraints.
Important design problems of the 21st Century

• Energy

• Environment

• Water

• Sustainability

• Healthcare
 Important technologies of the 21st Century

• In addition to EEWSH, we will continue to advance

the following fields:

• Transportation
• Telecommunications
• Food stuff
• Materials
• Information technology
• Manufacturing
• Entertainment technologies
• etc.
 Characteristics of a system:

1. They have to perform required FUNCTIONs, often many

functions at the same time.

2. They have to satisfy Functions without violating

constraints.

3. They have to operate within the boundary conditions

imposed on the system. Or change the boundary
conditions.

4. Initially there is not much to analyze until it is designed

first.

5. FUNCTIONS can be satisfied in many different ways.

 Important Ideas Related to System Design:

1. You have to know what are the “NEEDs” you are trying to
satisfy and “CONSTRAINTs”.

2. Functional thinking -- FRs

3. Separation of “What” from “How”.

4. Mapping from “What” to “How” -- A definition of Design

5. Top/Down Process

6. Independence of FRs -- eliminating coupling

7. Decomposability

8. Minimizing complexity and information

 Flying machine:
They lacked “Functional Thinking”!

What is “Functional Thinking”?

It is the ability to define goals without thinking

about how to satisfy the goals.

“Functional Thinking” leads to FRs, which

are selected by the designer among
many possible FRs.
 Flying machine:
They lacked “Functional Thinking”!

What functions should a flying machine satisfy to

be able to fly?

1. Move upward against the gravitational force

2. Stay in the air

3. Go forward

4. Turn

5. Land
Typical Design Process
 Homework Problems

1. Consider a thermoplastic cup that can be used to

dispense hot coffee from a vending machine. The
coffee cup must be stiff enough so that it can be
held in hand and also must have enough thermal
insulation since it must be held by hand without
burning the hand of the holder. Its cost must also
be low to be competitive with other products. What
are the functional requirements (FRs)? What are
the constraints? Explain why you chose those FRs
and constraints you have chosen.
 Homework Problems

2. The government policy is to provide education to

everyone who wants to receive college education in
Korea. At the same time, Korean people are eager to
have one of the Korean universities to be in the top
ten among all the universities in the world. State
functional requirements (FRs) for achieving these
dual goals. What are the constraints? Explain why
you chose those FRs and constraints you have
chosen.
 Homework Problems

3. What are the FRs of your intended professional

career? What are the constraints? Explain why you
chose those FRs and constraints you have chosen.

4. What are the FRs of an electrical connector for your

PC? Explain why you chose those FRs and
constraints you have chosen.
 Homework Problems

5. The current urban transportation system for people

depends on automobiles which use internal
combustion engines. As a result, many urban areas are
congested or snarled by traffic jams. Furthermore, the
quality of air in these highly populated mega-cities is
below the acceptable level set for human habitat. Your
job is to design a new “people transport system”. What
should be the FRs for such a system?