Abstract

This thesis is intended to validate and develop a progressive design method -- Environment-based Design (EBD). Designers often find them in predicament, where they struggle to develop expertise in the design process. The main reason is that they lack necessary guidance of an ideal design method. Many design methods have been developed, but none has achieved wide acceptance due to the limitations. Fortunately. the advent of Environment-based Design brings us new chance, though some effort still needs to make it optimized. The case studies, simulative design of early mechanical brake system and analysis of vehicle brake system evolution, were used to explore the validity of EBD. Especially, existing work on Environment-based Design was summarized, by focusing on environment system analysis, design driving force identification, design requirement extraction and analysis, and design concept generation and evaluation. Principles of EBD were comprehensively applied and verified in the simulative design. Also, the vehicle brake system evolution was studied to investigate the laws or trends how products evolves. The findings indicated that Environment-based Design is a valid design method, which is proved to be an effective tool for formalizing the design process. Design driving forces are conflicts between increasing human needs and current product functions. Design requirements can be obtained by analyzing product environment relations (including conflicts). A quality design concept should satisfy the design requirements, and remove the environment conflicts. Generally, EBD can greatly increase design effectiveness and efficiency