THE USE OF PARAMETER ANALYSIS FOR INNOVATIVE CONCEPTUALDESIGN

摘要

Methodologies that support innovative conceptual design are needed when unprecedenteddesign tasks are encountered. Traditional methods, such as Systematic Design, fail to capturethe real-life intricacies of human reasoning during conceptual design. An alternativemethodology, called Parameter Analysis, is introduced and shown to offer many advantages.Starting with traditional models of the design process, the difference between environmentaland methodological design approaches is outlined. The realization that human designthinking takes place at two different levels, which we call concept space and configurationspace, led to developing a new model for conceptual design, upon which parameter analysisis based. The methodology and its application are explained and discussed in detail. Theresults of using systematic design and parameter analysis are compared and contrastedthrough a case-study of designing small aerodynamic decelerators.