A study on utilising a graphical interface to represent movement transmission within products has been conducted to support a creative conceptual design process that separates the consideration of functional requirements and motion requirements. In engineering design, many representations of product structure have been proposed to assist in understanding how a design is constituted. However, most of these representations demonstrate only functions and are not able to demonstrate design structure. Functional Analysis Diagrams (FAD) provides a solution for this. An FAD shows not only functions but also physical elements by the network of blocks and arrows and thus it is capable of demonstrating various types of information and the design scheme. This characteristic gives FADs an advantage for designers to combine different types of information including useful and harmful interactions to gain an overview of the design task. This study focuses on using circles instead of arrows to represent movement attributes of mechanisms and machine elements in a Kinematic Functional Analysis Diagram (KFAD) and explores methods of utilising it in mechanical design. A commercial case study of medical equipment design conducted with the assistance of KFADs and a component database, mechanism and machine elements taxonomy (MMET), is described to illustrate the process. The design outcome shows that it is feasible to follow the proposed conceptual design process. With the help of KFADs and the machine elements taxonomy to enable consideration of movements, diverse considerations and design solutions are possible.
Experimental assessment of theory on the convective dispersion of blood gases by vortices in a curved channel exchanger has demonstrated the impracticality of the proposed design. A nonlinear stability analysis of the fluid dynamics provided an amplitude factor an order of magnitude less than that previously assumed for the system secondary circulations.
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