Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Victor H. Mucino.

Abstract

The process of mechanical design involves many steps, starting from a customer need. Then the engineer estimates the possible solutions until an optimal product is achieved. Through these design steps, information is created and exchanged among different design activities. Currently the industry lacks a means to preserve this information flow for future use.;In the end, much of the information generated in the design process may not be available due to obsolete software used to create the design; one missing part of the process; a missing link between the design tasks; unknown context of the design, and some other possibilities.;The present study is intended to create a digital repository in which all the data generated during the design process is preserved in order to establish a Long Term Retention Design Documentation. As an example, the analysis and design of a rudder are carried out to understand the design process and to address a possible solution for the loss of context in the design process.;The work started analyzing an actual rudder by taking all the information contained in a repository provided by the Navy. After this analysis, possible improvements were addressed and a new design was proposed. All the process of analysis and redesign helped to create a document in which all the design activities were linked to each other in order to preserve the context of this particular design.

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