Search results for "engineering design"
showing 10 items of 90 documents
Identification and Experimental Validation of an Induction Motor Thermal Model for Improved Drivetrain Design
2017
The ability of an electric powertrain to perform according to mechanical specifications is equally important as assessing its thermal protection limits, which are affected by its electrical and thermal properties. Although rated parameters (such as power, torque, etc.) are easily accessible in catalogs of equipment producers, more specific properties like mass/length of copper winding, heat dissipation factor, etc., are not available to customers. Therefore, an effective selection of drivetrain components is limited due to the lack of sufficient data and the need to consult critical design decisions with suppliers. To overcome this limitation, we propose a method to estimate the temperature…
Accessing and selecting menu items by in-air touch
2019
Is it possible to realize a non-visual, purely tactile version of an icon-based menu? Driven by such question, a hierarchical tactile dock was designed for an array of ultrasound emitters. The icons were conceived as spatio-temporal variable-speed sequences of tactile stimulation points, that are passively perceived as trajectories drawn on the palm of the hand. The recognition rate on four icons largely improved prior performance results obtained by active haptic exploration. As a result, a four-icons set can be used as the first level of a hierarchy of symbols that can be navigated by touch and gesture. The design process, based on controlled recognition experiments and exploration of dis…
Lessons Learned from Managing the Design Process of a Large and Complex Construction Project Seen in a Lean Construction Perspective
2020
The construction project being studied is a government investment related to a relocation of a biomedical institute delivering research-based knowledge and contingency support in the fields of animal health, fish health and food safety. The project covers a total of 63,000 m2 distributed over 10 buildings. The buildings have a very high degree of complexity due to a large proportion of special areas, great ambitions to the minimize environmental impact in addition to strict compliance to Infection Prevention and Control in order to achieve a world class product in its field. The project is procured as a design-bid-build project divided into 40 different execution contracts. The design alone…
DETECTING FALLS AT HOME: USER-CENTERED DESIGN OF A PERVASIVE TECHNOLOGY
2016
Falling is the main cause of domestic accidents and fatal injuries to seniors at home. In this paper, we describe the design process for a new pervasive technology (CIRDO). The aim of this technology is to detect falls (via audio and video sensors) and to alert the elderly's family or caregivers. Two complementary studies were performed. Firstly, the actual risk situations of older adults were analyzed. Secondly, social acceptance was investigated for the different homecare field stakeholders. Our results highlight the tensions among social actors towards the tool and their impacts on technology acceptance by the elderly. Also, we show a significant change in the fall process due to the dev…
Thermo-mechanical analysis of irradiation swelling and design optimization of the IFMIF target assembly with bayonet backplate
2017
Abstract The availability of a high flux neutron source for testing candidate materials under irradiation conditions, which will be typically encountered in future fusion power reactors (ITER, DEMO, FPR), is a fundamental step towards the development of fusion energy. To this purpose, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) represents the reference option to provide the fusion community with a DEMO-relevant neutron source capable of irradiating samples at a damage rate of up to 20 dpa/fpy (in steel) in a volume of 0.5 l. In the framework of the engineering design activities of IFMIF, ENEA is committed in the design of the lithium target assembly (TA) with removable (…
Finding near-perfect parameters for hardware and code optimizations with automatic multi-objective design space explorations
2012
Summary In the design process of computer systems or processor architectures, typically many different parameters are exposed to configure, tune, and optimize every component of a system. For evaluations and before production, it is desirable to know the best setting for all parameters. Processing speed is no longer the only objective that needs to be optimized; power consumption, area, and so on have become very important. Thus, the best configurations have to be found in respect to multiple objectives. In this article, we use a multi-objective design space exploration tool called Framework for Automatic Design Space Exploration (FADSE) to automatically find near-optimal configurations in …
Innovative Tools for Sound Sketching Combining Vocalizations and Gestures
2016
International audience; Designers are used to produce a variety of physical and digital representations at different stages of the design process. These intermediary objects (IOs) do support the externalization of ideas and the mediation with the different stakeholders. In the same manner, sound designers deliver several intermediate sounds to their clients, through iteration and refinement. In fact, these preliminary sounds are sound sketches representing the intermediate steps of an evolving creation. In this paper we reflect on the method of sketching sounds through vocalizations and gestures, and how a technological support, grounded in the understanding of the design practice, can fost…
Modelling Mechanical Wave Propagation: Guidelines and experimentation of a teaching–learning sequence
2008
This paper reports the design process and the experimentation of a teaching-learning sequence about the concept of mechanical wave propagation and the role played by media where waves are propagating. The sequence focuses on the central issue of the relationships between observable phenomena, like macroscopic behaviours of waves, and their interpretation and/or explanation in terms of corpuscular characteristics of media. We describe the design process with respect to the general framework of the Educational Reconstruction Model and the pedagogical tools used. Results of a teaching/learning experiment, involving a sample of 75 high school students, are also reported. Data analysis is mainly…
Lighting control systems: Factors affecting energy savings' evaluation
2015
Abstract The use of automated lighting control systems allows to reduce lighting costs and to achieve significant energy savings. The energy performances of controls are affected by many factors, the impact of which is very difficult to account for during the design process. The goal of this paper is to describe the factors that influence the control systems’ energy performances, to analyze how the currently available calculation tools take them into account and finally to propose a simple method to adjust results obtained from the simulation software.
Intelligent agents for feature modelling in computer aided design
2017
Abstract CAD modelling can be referred to as the process of generating an integrated multiple view model as a representation of multiple views of engineering design. In many situations, a change in the model of one view may conflict with the models of other views. In such situations, the model of some views needs to be adapted in order to make all models consistent. Thus, CAD models should be capable of adapting themselves to new situations. Recently, agent based technologies have been considered in order to increase both knowledge level and intelligence of real and virtual objects. The contribution of this paper consists in introducing the intelligent agents in intelligent CAD modelling. T…