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Application of Standard Design Tools to Specialty Engineering Disciplines

Introduction

Example applications of most engineering design tools, such as reliability testing or optimization, are oriented toward the major engineering disciplines and not toward smaller, more unique disciplines. Furthermore, design in a field such as the author’s disciple of geological engineering does not generally produce manufactured items, mechanized processes, or high performance activities, which are what many design tools were developed to optimize. For these reasons, a set of design tools and examples was developed that specifically apply to geological engineering. Examples are developed for typical geological engineering problems, shepherding students through the same decision points they will face in this industry. The modifications and motivations to develop these tools may be useful to other specialty engineering disciplines, such as mining, petroleum, geophysical, environmental, metallurgical, nuclear, and materials/ceramics, to name a few.

Tools include general engineering design skills such as problem solving techniques, discipline-specific writing skills, project management techniques, and use of scientific principles to solve typical geological engineering problems. Numerical tools include optimization methods (differentiation, Langrangian multiplier, and linear programming), economic analysis (with examples different from the “machinery purchase and depreciation” models usually given), and statistics. Analytical tools include reliability and failure analysis, fault trees, risk assessment, and maintainability (which, for geological engineering, often focuses on “design for low maintenance”). Design management skills include ethics exercises specific to geological engineering and project management exercises aimed at students who will enter the consulting engineering and construction industries.

Design in Specialty Engineering Disciplines

In any engineering discipline, a contrast may be made between “engineering science” and “engineering design” problems. Engineering science problems typically share the following characteristics:

• “the problem statement is compact and well-posed • the problem has readily identifiable closure • the solution is unique and compact • the problem uses specialized knowledge”1

Typical engineering science problems might include calculation of deflection of a loaded steel beam or calculation of current flowing through a given circuit.

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Santi, P. (2006, June), Application Of Standard Design Tools To Specialty Engineering Disciplines Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--413