Design Methodologies and Life Cycle Engineering
About
Over the past decades product design has gradually evolved from an art to a more systematically managed business activity. Design evaluation and optimisation techniques are being developed that verify the fitness of proposed designs for different phases of the product life cycle, including manufacturing, assembly, logistics, maintenance, disassembly, etc. In a Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) approach, these considerations are integrated in order to achieve an optimal product specification that takes into account all phases of the product life cycle. Moreover, both the total life cycle cost and the overall environmental impact are considered. Since contemporary design and development work is obviously characterised by a very high knowledge-intensity, the development of a new generation of knowledge management systems is another research interest of the department.
Research topics
- Automated design and ideation methods
- Product lifetime prolongation through reuse and recycling
- Total Cost of Ownership
- Knowledge Management
- Manufacturability analysis and design optimisation
- Development of Pro-active Eco-design Methodologies
- Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems for Industrial Sectors
- Life cycle engineering applications
Research projects and PhD
Research Projects
- BOSS (CO project funded by IWT)
- BRIGABIER (O&O project funded by IWT)
- CO2PE!
- EnHiPro (O&O project funded by IWT)
- ExtREMe (Eureka project funded by IWT)
- PRIME
- Eco2cut (FP7 project)
- Low Impact Manufacturing (PhD Grant by IWT)
- Externally Triggered Active Disassembly for Consumer Products
- Methods and Algorithms for Systematic Innovation
- Product-Service Systems
- Methods and Algorithms for Biologically-Inspired Innovation
- Sustainable Manufacturing: A system approach
- Biopolymers in electrical/electronic applications leading to possible improved WEEE processing performance
- Green IT Service Management
- Process Planning for Economical and Ecological Machining
- Optimized End-Of-Life Treatment of Electric and Electronic Consumer Products
Publications
Click here for an overview of all our publications
Software
- mIDGenes - Measuring IDea GENeration EffectivenesS
Past Projects
- RAVEL: RAil VEhicLe eco-efficient design (EU Brite Euram) (also described in overview past projects)
- ECOSYSTEMS: Advanced Machining Systems for Environmentally Friendly Manufacturing (EC-Growth Project) (described in overview past projects)
- RELOOP: Reverse logistics chain optimisation in a multi-user trading environment (EU Esprit) (described in overview past projects)
- Development of a modular eco-design procedure for electro-mechanical products based on the full life cycle (IWT) (described in overview past projects)
- Development of improved fastening and separation techniques in support of design for disassembly and design for recycling strategies (IWT) (also described in overview past projects)
- CHASM: Coping with health, environmental and safety aspects in standards for machinery (Belgian Science Policy) (also described in overview past projects)
- Refining and applying the pro-active ecodesign method 'Eco-Pas' (IWT) (described in overview past projects)
- McKnow: Methods and Algorithms for Knowledge Management (IWT) (described in overview past projects)
- McKnow-E: Methods and Algorithms for Knowledge Management (IWT)
- AKROPOLIS (Funded by IWT)
- MATRIZ (Funded by IWT)
Contact
prof. dr. ir. Joost Duflou
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Celestijnenlaan 300A, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Tel: +32 16 322845
Fax: +32 16 322986
Staff members
Joost Duflou
Wim Dewulf
Dennis Vandevenne
Joris Van Ostaeyen
Paul-Armand Verhaegen
Karel Kellens
Jef Peeters
Renaldi
Yelin Deng
Dirk Pauwels
Guo Yansong
Paul Vanegas
