Computer Aided Design (CAD) aids sustainability
A Eureka magazine article on the SolidWorks World event had some interesting tidbits about the link between design and sustainability:
Among the highlights of the event were several presentations on sustainability and its link with engineering design – including a discussion on the role that CAD should play in this.
Anna Jaffe, co-director of the Vehicle Design Summit, revealed that this worldwide collaboration between engineering students to develop sustainable cars has already resulted in four pre-prototypes – one inspired by the Sinclair C5 – with plans to take one design on into crash testing and production. The four pre-prototypes came out of the Summit held during the summer of 2006 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 55 student engineers from 21 universities spent 8 weeks coming up with four designs: one human/solar/electric powered, and the others powered by biofuel, fuel cells and straight electric. Jaffe then revealed revealed that VDS 1.0 is to be followed by VDS 2.0, in which design will be “distributed all round the world” with the goal of producing prototypes of a car capable of 200 mpg, 150 mile range, 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds and 120 mph top speed in 8 months. Up to 40 pre-production prototypes are to be built for crash testing in two years.
Kishore Boyalakuntla, SolidWorks’ national technical manager for analysis products, made the point that SolidWorks (or any other leading edge CAD tool) is already of great assistance in designing for sustainability. Minimising weight, designing for repairability and disassembly and optimal choice of materials are all improved by using advanced CAD and FEA.