Optimization in Engineering Design:

Optimization should always be carried out at the initial product development phase and should not be an endeavour to improve or upgrade the product at a later stage. In the development cycle of an engineering product it may take place after the constitutive modelling and it usually seeks to put the product under development above and beyond the desired specifications. It must also be noted that to further improve the product certain properties of the material or structure will be improved but at the expense of others. As such the product may be good at meeting the specifications excellently well but may not meet the unspecified ones. There are indeed various types of optimization like Topological optimization that does not essentially seek to enhance the physical properties of the material or structure.

Multi-functional Engineering Design Optimization

There is always need for an exhaustive, quantitative multi-functional design methodology that covers the non-computational and technological side of the design process in engineering systems. The goal of cross-functional systems in design optimization is to establish advanced and complex engineering methods that are sufficiently robust to meet the need for performance as well as the broader aspects of the product or objective in its totality. In the execution of cross-functional or multi-functional engineering design optimization the cross-functional nature of the engineering systems has to be established if not understood, the design of these complex engineering systems has to be carried and sufficiently reviewed if not audited, and the tools for the design optimization carefully chosen and reviewed.

Fatigue Analysis in Engineering Design:

This may follow after optimization and it seeks to establish the life times, durability, endurance limits, stress amplitudes and much more of the material or structure and ultimately the product. It always tests the effort made in the previous stages of the development of the product and if there are shortcomings in the outcomes of the analysis, the sure way to improve on them will be to revert to these previous stages. In the light of that we can say that the product development cycle is equally tested or retraced in the event of a shortcoming. For many engineering design teams the luxury of knowing which parts or areas of the product that are more or must susceptible to fatigue is usually great but mitigating against that can indeed affect the product objectives or the product's aesthetics as such there is the need for a cross-functional team involvement in the design of most products so that the need to modify the aesthetics of a product can be minimized especially at this late stage especially when alot of resources has been sunk in the previous stages.

Fatigue can be minimized by carefully ensuring that certain geometric shapes are avoided if need be on the surfaces of the product or object. Cracks that have started to advance usually have shapes or geometry that fatigue thrives on. To mitigate that such cracks can sometimes be stopped by drilling holes, called drill stops in the path of the fatigue crack; since such drilled stops have circular shapes stresses are not as  concentrated on them especially if it is a small one as such minimizing the chances of fatigue failure. There still remains the chance of a new crack developing on the side of the drilled stop as such this practice is not recommended.

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