INTEGRATED OPTIMIZATION OF FUNCTIONAL AND LAYOUT DESIGNS BASED ON GENETIC ALGORITHM: Consideration of Carbon Emission throughout Product's Lifecycle

摘要

In our previous research, the integrated optimization of functional/layout designs based on genetic algorithm was developed for supporting conceptual design phase. This method can optimize a functional structure and a parts layout simultaneously by evaluating performance, cost and size. In this paper, we now focus on consideration of lifecycle characteristics in response to rise of environmental awareness in recent years and combine our previous integrated method with lifecycle assessment (LCA) in order to enable creation of product concepts that balance various characteristics including lifecycle ones at a higher level. This paper also shows an application of the proposed method to a personal computer design and discusses the effect of consideration of lifecycle characteristics during conceptual optimization.