Nature of design

This section is a general discussion of the design process. The subject of this book is chemical engineering design, but the methodology described in this section applies equally to other branches of engineering. 

The reason that companies in such a diverse range of industries value chemical engineers so highly is the following  

Starting from a vaguely defined problem statement such as a customer need or a set of experimental results, chemical engineers can develop an understanding of the important underlying physical science relevant to the problem and use this understanding to create a plan of action and set of detailed specifications which, if implemented, will lead to a 

The creation of plans and specifications and the prediction of the financial outcome if the plans were implemented is the activity of chemical engineering design. 

Economic considerations are obviously a major constraint on any engineering design plants must make a profit. Process costing and economics are discussed in Chapter 6. 

Time will also be a constraint. The time available for completion of a design will usually limit the number of alternative designs that can be considered. 

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A good strategy takes into account the evolutionary nature of design concepts, the appropriate level of detail of describing the system and the degree of accuracy of available and assumed data for properties, performance and cost. 

The unique nature of designing a pilot plant arises from the smaller size and the lower level of design information available. A pilot plant is usually the first engineered version of a laboratory process. In many... 

The nature of design analysis obviously depends on having product-performance requirements. The product s level of technical sophistication and the consequent level of analysis that can be justified costwise basically control these requirements. The analysis also depends on the... 

Time-dependent periodic complexity, when the coupled nature of design is capsulated to prevent the propagation across the system... 

In a small way it is hoped that this illustrates the creative nature of design. The analysis showed that the original design was deficient but... 

The nature of design as a pillar of engineering is easier to grasp if we contrast it with the nature of science. As far as method is concerned, the distinction offered by Gregory is illuminating ... 

This book details function-based techniques for reverse engineering of man-made hardware. See Denis L. Feucht, Design in Nature and the Nature of Design, (Feucht, 1999) for a discussion of the relevance of functional theories to the design of living organisms. 

Feucht, D. L. (1999). Design in nature and the nature of design. Origins and Design, 19(2). Available from http //www.arn.org/docs/odesign/odl92/ designinnaturel92.htm... 

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