Research in Interactive Design (Vol. 4)

Research in interactive Design – Vol. 4 presents the most recent successful developments in mechanics, design engineering and advanced manufacturing for innovation in product, process and production engineering. The readers are invited to discover new techniques, methods, models and tools based on integrated and interactive design approaches. In a context of worldwide competition, there is an unquestionable need for such approaches to improve the reactivity, flexibility and capacity for innovation of engineers faced with particular challenges in enhancing the development of transport systems, the production of energy, the manufacture of consumer goods, the building engineering or the product design. But these approaches are also of great interest to academics, to improve the content of their curriculum and education programmes and to define novel research roadmaps in the field of mechanics, design engineering and advanced manufacturing.

Technical Drawing is a multiple tool of expression and communication essential to develop inquiry processes, the scientifically basis and comprehension of drawings and technological designs beiing able to be manufactured. It is demonstrated graphically and analytically that spatial vision and graphic thinking allow the user to identify graphically real life problems, develop proposals of solutions to be analysed from different points of view, plan and develop the project, provide information needed to make decisions on objects and technological processes.

Virtual prototyping enables the validation and optimization of machinery equivalent to physical testing, saving time and costs in the product development, especially in case of heavy machines with complex motions.

The problem of the optimum design of a sandwich structure composed of two laminatedskins and a honeycomb core is analyzed.

LIDAR flights with multi-objective are every day more widespread. Governments are aware of the high potential that can be derived from point clouds obtained from these flights. One of the major fields in which applications are developed is the agroforestry field, especially related to forest management of large numbers of trees. Quickly parameters forests and even individual trees are achieved. We intend to initiate a new guidance on the use of LIDAR data in order to identify tree species through the envelope profile of the cloud of points composing each individual tree. The projection of the point cloud of individual trees and the study of their convex hull, will characterize a given forest stand and assign a particular species.

In a global economy, the conquest of new markets has led many companies to expand their business around the globe. However, new challenges have aroused from this expension. Our study field context is Alstom Hydro that designs and manufactures hydraulic turbines. The research aims at studying and supporting the involvement of experts and future users in the co-creation of corporate engineering standards.

In a design process the product is decomposed into systems along the disciplinary lines. Each stage has its own goals and constraints that must be satisfied and has control over a subset of design variables that describe the overall system. When using different tools to initiate a product life cycle, including the environment and impacts, its noticeable that there is a gap in tools that linked the stages of preliminary design and the stages of materialization. Different eco-design methodologies under the common denominator of the use of a life cycle analysis have been compared in time efficiency of use and in which stages of the life cycle they can be used. A case study was developed by the application of these methodologies to obtain first-hand information and interpretable results to define advantages and disadvantages of the selected methodologies.

Abrasive water jet milling (AWJM) is a new way to perform controlled depth milling especially for hard materials, but it is not yet enough reliable because of large variety of process parameters and complex footprint geometries that are not well mastered. In order to master the milling device in AWJM, a deep study on the footprint of a single path of the cutting head should first be considered. The flow of the AWJ and the distribution of abrasive particles coming out of the jet are related to the profile measured on the footprint.

The first step of the robotic polishing process for aircraft large parts is related to the choice of tools and adjustment of process parameters. The parts have a finish state obtained by 5 axis machining with ball end tool. The objective of the polishing operation is to erase the tool marks, ensuring the imposed profile surface defect and surface state. This requires the choice of polishing tools and the setting of strategy parameters, particularly the polishing force. It must be controlled according to the contact surface between the tool and the part and the attempted polishing pressure. This polishing pressure is defined from a desired removal rate and surface quality. Then, polishing condition parameters are studied in order to propose a first setting for flat parts and cylinders polishing.

Nowadays, design projects tend to be undertaken concurrently by a project team with a diversity of competences and backgrounds (culture, organization etc.). Knowledge management is supposed to enhance experience reuse by transforming tacit knowledge that is produced in projects into reusable explicit one. However, due to the characteristics of modern design projects, knowledge management has to pay attention not only to decision-making activities, but also the influence of project context.

Technical Drawing is a multiple tool of expression and communication essential to develop inquiry processes, the scientifically basis and comprehension of drawings and technological designs beiing able to be manufactured. It is demonstrated graphically and analytically that spatial vision and graphic thinking allow the user to identify graphically real life problems, develop proposals of solutions to be analysed from different points of view, plan and develop the project, provide information needed to make decisions on objects and technological processes. From the knowledge of Technical Drawing and CAD tools graphic analyses have developed in order to improve and optimize the geometry of the rectangular cells of conventional bricks by hexagonal cells, which is protected by a Spanish patent owned by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. This new internal geometry of the bricks will improve the efficiency and the acoustic damping of walls built with the ceramic bricks of horizontal hollow, maintaining the same size of the conventional bricks, without increasing costs either in the manufacture and the sale. A single brick will achieve the width equivalent to more than four conventional bricks.

Virtual prototyping enables the validation and optimization of machinery equivalent to physical testing, saving time and costs in the product development, especially in case of heavy machines with complex motions. However, virtual prototyping is usually deployed only at the end of the design process, when product architecture is already developed.

This work deals with the problem of the optimum design of a sandwich structure composed of two laminated skins and a honeycomb core.

LIDAR flights with multi-objective are every day more widespread. Governments are aware of the high potential that can be derived from point clouds obtained from these flights. One of the major fields in which applications are developed is the agroforestry field, especially related to forest management of large numbers of trees.

In a global economy, the conquest of new markets has led many companies to expand their business around the globe. However, new challenges have aroused from this expension. Our study field context is Alstom Hydro that designs and manufactures hydraulic turbines. The research aims at studying and supporting the involvement of experts and future users in the co-creation of corporate engineering standards.

In a design process the product is decomposed into systems along the disciplinary lines. Each stage has its own goals and constraints that must be satisfied and has control over a subset of design variables that describe the overall system. When using different tools to initiate a product life cycle, including the environment and impacts, its noticeable that there is a gap in tools that linked the stages of preliminary design and the stages of materialization.

Abrasive water jet milling (AWJM) is a new way to perform controlled depth milling especially for hard materials, but it is not yet enough reliable because of large variety of process parameters and complex footprint geometries that are not well mastered. In order to master the milling device in AWJM, a deep study on the footprint of a single path of the cutting head should first be considered. The flow of the AWJ and the distribution of abrasive particles coming out of the jet are related to the profile measured on the footprint.

The first step of the robotic polishing process for aircraft large parts is related to the choice of tools and adjustment of process parameters. The parts have a finish state obtained by 5 axis machining with ball end tool. The objective of the polishing operation is to erase the tool marks, ensuring the imposed profile surface defect and surface state. This requires the choice of polishing tools and the setting of strategy parameters, particularly the polishing force. It must be controlled according to the contact surface between the tool and the part and the attempted polishing pressure. This polishing pressure is defined from a desired removal rate and surface quality. Then, polishing condition parameters are studied in order to propose a first setting for flat parts and cylinders polishing.

Nowadays, design projects tend to be undertaken concurrently by a project team with a diversity of competences and backgrounds (culture, organization etc.). Knowledge management is supposed to enhance experience reuse by transforming tacit knowledge that is produced in projects into reusable explicit one. However, due to the characteristics of modern design projects, knowledge management has to pay attention not only to decision-making activities, but also the influence of project context.