System reliability is treated as a parameter and not modeled in the early concept design
stages. We illustrate a reliability model for system reliability in early concept design using …

This paper presents a behavior-based protocol study conducted with mechanical
engineering students, where the participants developed function–structure models for a …

Functional modelling is an essential part of systematic design approaches and is often
prescribed in engineering design textbooks. However, function models created with current …

Functional analysis aims to decompose the main functions of a product, which can be large
and complex, into more manageable subfunctions. Recently, interest in explicitly …

Elicited student mental models reveal students' understanding of a given system as well as
their ability to communicate knowledge of that system to others. Understanding how students …

This paper presents an exploratory study conducted to understand the role of individual
differences between designers in the function modeling process and with respect to final …

The representation of an engineering system can come in different modalities. These
modalities may impact how designers' reason about a given system, which could have …

Engineering systems are often represented in terms of their function or the constituent
components. Several representation styles and modalities have been proposed and used in …

The concept of “function” serves various purposes in engineering design, resulting in a
variety of definitions for the same term. This paper presents an analysis of function …

Understanding how engineers formulate and evolve mental models holds the potential to
inform the development of materials that benefit systems thinking. A first step toward …