The scope of this work is to generate quantifiable measures of sustainability elements that apply to manufactured products in terms of environmental, social and economic benefits. This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis for developing a methodology to compare the costs encountered by a vehicle over its entire life-cycle (Pre-manufacturing, Manufacturing, Use, and Post-use stages), considering two different material scenarios, aluminum versus steel, used in body-in-white (BIW) structures and exterior body panels. The potential benefits of using lighter materials in auto body applications are further evaluated through a Sustainability Scoring method. The proposed six major integral sustainable elements considered in this work are: products environmental impact, societal impact, functionality, resource utilization and economy, manufacturability and recyclability/remanufacturability. Each of these elements has corresponding sub-elements and influencing factors which are categorized as having equal importance to the product.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uky.edu/oai:uknowledge.uky.edu:gradschool_theses-1452 |
| Date | 01 January 2007 |
| Creators | Ungureanu, Constantin Adrian |
| Publisher | UKnowledge |
| Source Sets | University of Kentucky |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of Kentucky Master's Theses |
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