Engineering Design Notes III
Conceptual Design
EE 498/499 Capstone Design Classes
Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer
Engineering
Topics
Overview
Definitions
Conceptual Design Steps
Activity Analysis
Concept Generation
Analysis and Feasibility
Evaluation Methods
Documentation
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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Overview
Specification
The Conceptual Design is
the first part of the design
process after the
specifications have been
determined.
This is to act as the
intellectual exercise to
generate ways
accomplishing the actual
design.
This step is successful if we
have at least one feasible
alternative to work with
when we are done.
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Establish functional
requirements
Determine design
constraints
Determine acceptance
criteria
Generate
Alternatives
Create alternative
solutions to realize
Specifications
Analyze
Alternatives
How well do the
alternative designs meet
the Specifications
Redesign
iteration
Feasible Alternatives
Evaluate
Alternatives
Perform numeric
comparison of the
alternatives and the
quality of their meeting
Specifications
Fabrication specification
for the best alternative
Design Process Version I
Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Definitions
What is the Conceptual Design process? It is
the generation of design alternatives or
Design Concepts and the supporting analysis
to determine the feasibility of each
alternative.
What is a Design Concept? It is a design
alternative that includes at least one physical
principle and one abstract embodiment.
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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Definitions
What is a physical principle? This is a natural
law or effect that produces a useable method
of modifying a signal or device to produce a
functional output. For example, the
photoelectric effect is a physical principle that
produces a current in proportion to the
intensity of the incident light.
An abstract embodiment is a diagram that
shows the relative relationship between the
actors in the design. It need not be to scale.
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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Definitions
Design Element Physical
Principle
Embodiment
Method
Energy
Generation
Solar Cells
Examples
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Photoelectric
Effect
Nuclear Power
Combustion
Reactor
Furnace
Data
RF
Communications Optical
Wire
Radio/modem
Laser/detector
Wiring harness
Energy Storage
Battery
Chemical
Storage
Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Definitions
The Conceptual Design Diagram is
A diagram with the Design Concept,
Including the physical principles being used, and
The abstract embodiment.
This is basically a block diagram or extended
sketch with the necessary aspect labeled.
Note: systems usually need to have individual
Conceptual Design Diagrams for the
component subsystems rather than all-in-one
diagrams.
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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Definitions
Example: Develop a Conceptual Design Diagram for
a communications system composed of a modem,
RF transmission unit, and antenna.
Note, actual components not specified at this level.
Potential Physical Principles that can be considered:
RF, Optical, or Wire harness communications.
Here, we consider the Conceptual Design Diagram
for the RF option. The RF embodiment is based on
a RF unit and a modem. The following diagram
shows the Concept.
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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Definitions
Communications Conceptual Design Diagram
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Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Conceptual Design Steps
The proper Conceptual Design Process has
the following stages:
Activity Analysis: how will the design be used in
various stages such as normal use, battery
recharging, disposal, start-up and shutdown, etc.,
as appropriate for the needs.
Generate Alternative Concepts: the design
team uses various strategies to generate
Concepts that should meet the design
requirements.
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Conceptual Design Steps
Conceptual Design Process (cont.)
Analyze: use engineering analysis, simulation,
bench testing, etc. to verify that the design
concept does work to meet the specifications.
Feasibility Test: does the design analysis
indicate that the design concept will meet the
specifications and actually can per executed.
Evaluate: determine which one or set of the
feasible design concepts left are best (at least at
the level we can tell at this time).
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Activity Analysis
The Activity Analysis stage really is an
exercise to determine how the design
meeting the specifications is to be used in
real life. This includes user activities and
understanding the inputs and outputs
(signals, power, etc.).
To do this activity, you will need to perform a
functional decomposition and an I/O
analysis.
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Activity Analysis
The functional decomposition takes the design
functional requirements and refines them respective
subfunctions and sub-subfunctions.
The functions are not broken down by expected
embodiments but by similar functions.
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Activity Analysis
The I/O analysis looks at the control, data, and
power signals coming into and out of a function.
This will become a basis for the designs Interface
Control Document that specifies and documents all
interface details.
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Activity Analysis
Comms Example Functional
Decomposition
Antenna
Transmit Frequency
Receive Frequency
Set Frequencies
Set Power
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Waveform Processing
Computer Control
Set Baud rate
Set comms parameters
Buffer data
RF signal in
RF signal out
RF Unit
Modem unit
Antenna
Transmit Electronics
Receive Electronics
Computer Control
Comms Example I/O
Analysis
RF unit
Computer interface
RF signal in
RF signal out
Signal from modem in
Signal to modem out
Power
Modem unit
Design Notes III - Conceptual Design
Signal from RF in
Signal to RF out
Computer interface
Power
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Activity Analysis
Activity Analysis results:
An assessment of which functions can be
combined
A check-off to ensure that all required functions
are addressed
An understanding of the required interfaces
A possibility that the design requirements may
need to be reviewed and iterated upon to update
them.
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Concept Generation
The design team uses various strategies to
generate Concepts that should meet the
design requirements.
This is also sometimes called synthesis.
Use brainstorming, past experience, similar
designs, Google searches, WAGs,
sleeping on it, etc.
This process may take some time!
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Analysis and Feasibility
Analyze: use engineering analysis,
simulation, bench testing, etc. to verify that
the design concept does work to meet the
specifications.
Feasibility Test: does the design analysis
indicate that the design concept will meet the
specifications and actually can per executed.
From the analysis and testing, we should also
eliminate those designs that cant be built,
would cost too much, etc.
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Evaluation Methods
Once the design concepts are generated and
evaluated for feasibility, the surviving design
concepts need to be evaluated to determine which
one is best.
How does one define best?
One common method is to use the criteria for the
design and weight the relative importance to
determine best.
Note: the designers must be careful not to rig the
weighting to make a favorite come out best.
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Evaluation Methods
Weighted Evaluation Method:
Select the evaluation criteria and place in column 1 of a
matrix.
Importance weights are assigned to each criterion and
placed in column 2 of the matrix.
The concepts to be evaluated are placed in subsequent
columns of the matrix.
Each concept is rates against the criteria and a score of 0
to 4 is given. A 0 implies unsatisfactory performance while
a 4 is implies very good performance.
Each score is multiplied by the weighting factor and the
scores are summed. Highest weighted score wins.
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Evaluation Methods
Concept Alternatives
External COTS Modem
Criteria
Importance
Weight (%)
Rating
Weighted
Rating
DSP Modem
Internal Modem
Rating
Weighted
Rating
Rating
Weighted
Rating
Operating current
30
1.20
0.60
0.90
Physical Size
25
1.00
0.75
0.75
Mass
20
0.80
0.60
0.40
Cost
15
0.30
0.60
0.45
Buffer Capacity
10
0.20
0.40
0.30
100
3.50
2.95
2.80
Example evaluation matrix.
Notice, functional requirements are not included because it is
assumed that all design concepts meet the testable
requirements. This is for the intangibles or more subjective
criteria. Testable requirements with varying degrees of
performance can also be included.
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Documentation
At the end of the Conceptual Design stage,
the following documents should be part of the
design documentation, at a minimum:
Operations Concept document
Conceptual Design Diagram
Function Decomposition
I/O Analysis
Design Analysis showing that Conceptual Design
meets requirements
Design Evaluation matrix
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Documentation
Additional documents that can be started at
this stage include:
Budgets: mass, size, link analysis, power, etc.
Start considering how the various components will
be integrated and tested. Integration and test
plans can be started.
Note, in some cases, these will be no more
than outlines with placeholder sections to be
developed further.
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