In recent decades, the development of computer-controlled manufacturing by adding materiallayer by layer, called Additive Manufacturing (AM), has developed at a rapid pace. The technologyadds possibilities to the manufacturing of geometries that are not possible, or at leastnot economically feasible, to manufacture by more conventional manufacturing methods. AMcomes with the idea that complexity is free, meaning that complex geometries are as expensiveto manufacture as simple geometries. This is partly true, but there remain several design rulesthat needs to be considered before manufacturing. The research field Design for Additive Manufacturing(DfAM) consists of research that aims to take advantage of the possibilities of AMwhile considering the limitations of the technique. Computer Aided technologies (CAx) is the name of the usage of methods and software thataim to support a digital product development process. CAx includes software and methodsfor design, the evaluation of designs, manufacturing support, and other things. The commongoal with all CAx disciplines is to achieve better products at a lower cost and with a shorterdevelopment time. The work presented in this thesis bridges DfAM with CAx with the aim of achieving designautomation for AM. The work reviews the current DfAM process and proposes a new integratedDfAM process that considers the functionality and manufacturing of components. Selectedparts of the proposed process are implemented in a case study in order to evaluate theproposed process. In addition, a tool that supports part of the design process is developed. The proposed design process implements Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) witha parametric CAD model that is evaluated from functional and manufacturing perspectives. Inthe implementation, a structural component is designed using the MDO framework, which includesComputer Aided Engineering (CAE) models for structural evaluation, the calculation ofweight, and how much support material that needs to be added during manufacturing. Thecomponent is optimized for the reduction of weight and minimization of support material,while the stress levels in the component are constrained. The developed tool uses methodsfor high level Parametric CAD modelling to simplify the creation of parametric CAD modelsbased on Topology Optimization (TO) results. The work concludes that the implementation of CAx technologies in the DfAM process enablesa more automated design process with less manual design iterations than traditional DfAM processes.It also discusses and presents directions for further research to achieve a fully automateddesign process for Additive Manufacturing. / AddMan

Over the last decade, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have experienced an accelerated growth, and nowadays they are being deployed in a variety of missions that have traditionally been covered by manned aircraft. This unprecedented market expansion has created new and unforeseen challenges for the manufacturing industry which is now called to further reduce the idea-to-market times while simultaneously delivering designs of even higher performance. In this environment of uncertainty and risk, it is without a doubt crucial for the involved actors to find ways to secure their strategic advantage, and hence, implementing the latest design tools has become a critical consideration in every Product Development Process (PDP). To this end, a method that has been frequently applied in the PDP and has shown many successful results in the development of complex engineering products is Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO). In general, MDO can bring additional knowledge regarding the best-suited designs much earlier in the process, and in this respect, it can lead to significant cost and time savings by reducing the total number of refinement iterations. Nevertheless, the organizational and cultural integration of MDO has been often overlooked, while at the same time, several technical aspects of the method for UAV design are still at an elementary level. On the whole, research on MDO is showing a slow progress, and to this date, there are many limitations in both the disciplinary models and the available analysis capabilities. In light of the above, this thesis focuses on the particulars of the MDO methodology, and more specifically, on how it can be best adapted and evolved in order to enhance the development process of UAVs. The primary objective is to study the current trends and gaps of the MDO practices in UAV applications, and subsequently to build upon that and explore how these can be included in a roadmap that will be able to serve a guide for newcomers in the field. Compared to other studies, the problem is herein approached from both a technical as well as organizational perspective, and thus, this research not only aims to propose techniques that can lead to better designs but also solutions that will be meaningful to the PDP. Having established the above foundation, this work shows that the traditional MDO frameworks for UAV design have been neglecting several important features, and it elaborates on how those novel elements can be modeled in order to enable a better integration of MDO into the organizational functions. Overall, this thesis presents quantitative and qualitative data which illustrate the effectiveness of the new framework enhancements in the development process of UAVs, and concludes with discussions on the possible improvement directions towards achieving more and better MDO capabilities.

S.B. Gershwin, J.G. Kimemia, E.R. Ducot. / Bibliography: leaf [5] / "August 1981" / "National Science Foundation Grant DAR78-17826"

by Joseph G. Kimemia, Stanley B. Gershwin. / "August 1981." / National Science Foundation Grant DAR78-17826

The objective of this dissertation is to enhance the overall understanding of practical manufacturing systems by using rigorous academic approaches, primarily queueing theory. The scope spans from the performance of a single manufacturing process to the performance of a manufacturing system. Queueing models are commonly used to evaluate the performance of manufacturing systems. Exact M/M/1 or approximations of G/G/1 models are usually adopted to describe the behavior of a single machine system. However, when applying queueing models to a single machine, some practical issues are encountered. A real machine is subject to different types of interruptions, such as breakdowns, setups and routine maintenance. The proper queueing models under interruptions are presented. The behavior of manufacturing systems is explored by first investigating the underlying structure of tandem queues. We introduce two properties describing the dependence among servers in tandem queues, namely the intrinsic gap and intrinsic ratio, and develop a new approximation approach. The approach exploits what we call the nearly-linear and heavy-traffic properties of the intrinsic ratio. Across a broad range of examined cases, this new approach outperforms earlier approximations that are based on the parametric-decomposition and diffusion approximation approaches. We also demonstrate its use with historical data to achieve very accurate queue time estimates. Furthermore, based on the structure of tandem queues, a way to model the performance of manufacturing systems has been developed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 396-419). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 396-419). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-95).

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy