These proceedings contain lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Concurrent Engineering Tools and Technologies for Mechanical System Design held in Iowa City, Iowa, 25 May -5 June, 1992. Lectures were presented by leaders from Europe and North America in disciplines contributing to the emerging international focus on Concurrent Engineering of mechanical systems. Participants in the Institute were specialists from throughout NATO in disciplines constituting Concurrent Engineering, many of whom presented contributed papers during the Institute and all of whom participated actively in discussions on technical aspects of the subject. The proceedings are organized into the following five parts: Part 1 Basic Concepts and Methods Part 2 Application Sectors Part 3 Manufacturing Part 4 Design Sensitivity Analysis and Optimization Part 5 Virtual Prototyping and Human Factors Each of the parts is comprised of papers that present state-of-the-art concepts and methods in fields contributing to Concurrent Engineering of mechanical systems. The lead-off papers in each part are based on invited lectures, followed by papers based on contributed presentations made by participants in the Institute.

Methods presented involve the use of simulation and modeling tools and virtual workstations in conjunction with a design environment. This allows a diverse group of researchers, manufacturers, and suppliers to work within a comprehensive network of shared knowledge. The design environment consists of engineering workstations and servers and a suite of simulation, quantitative, computational, analytical, qualitative and experimental tools. Such a design environment will allow the effective and efficient integration of complete product design, manufacturing process design, and customer satisfaction predictions. This volume enables the reader to create an integrated concurrent engineering design and analysis infrastructure through the use of virtual workstations and servers; provide remote, instant sharing of engineering data and resources for the development of a product, system, mechanism, part, business and/or process, and develop applications fully compatible with international CAD/CAM/CAE standards for product representation and modeling.

Presenting the gradual evolution of the concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE), and the technical, social methods and tools that have been developed, including the many theoretical and practical challenges that still exist, this book serves to summarize the achievements and current challenges of CE and will give readers a comprehensive picture of CE as researched and practiced in different regions of the world. Featuring in-depth analysis of complex real-life applications and experiences, this book demonstrates that Concurrent Engineering is used widely in many industries and that the same basic engineering principles can also be applied to new, emerging fields like sustainable mobility. Designed to serve as a valuable reference to industry experts, managers, students, researchers, and software developers, this book is intended to serve as both an introduction to development and as an analysis of the novel approaches and techniques of CE, as well as being a compact reference for more experienced readers.

Topics covered include: design technologies and applications; FE simulation for concurrent design and manufacture; methodologies; knowledge engineering and management; CE within virtual enterprises; and CE - the future.

This textbook presents the concepts of engineering design process in proven steps of needs assessment, problem formulation, system modelling, analysis and implementation. It discusses in detail the concepts of system development, system modelling, system evaluation, system reliability, system simulation and presents the optimization techniques in a practical manner. The approach presented leads the students and practising engineers to understand and learn the design process and to develop the objective rationale for decision making in order to fulfil their professional role in society.