The Material Indices Method in the Sustainable Engineering Design Process: A Review

Bogdan Branowski, Marek Zabłocki and Maciej Sydor
Additional contact information
Bogdan Branowski: Faculty of Transport Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, ul. Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Marek Zabłocki: Faculty of Transport Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, ul. Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Maciej Sydor: Faculty of Wood Technology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, ul. Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: The material indices method has its application in both the design of construction materials and products. The method has evolved since the 1960s and has been described in German, Russian, Polish, and English scientific literature. In the 1990s, the method was adapted to Design for the Environment with the inclusion of specific energy consumption indicators for various construction materials. The article cites six principles of Design for the Environment and presents specific energy consumption indicators according to various authors. This data was then used in two sample applications of the material indices method to determine the specific energy consumption of product manufacture: of a support structure of the standing frame and a compression spring design. In the conclusions, the significant limitations of the material indices method are emphasized, which are not extensively discussed in the literature on the subject, such as its high sensitivity to the accuracy of the adopted energy consumption indicators for materials in view of the actual production process; not taking into consideration all the negative aspects of the materials’ impact on the environment, or the difficulties associated with predicting the impact of material production technology on the material indices. On the other hand, their simple functional form makes them ideal for incorporation into modern CAD software and in product optimization at the initial stage of concept design.

Keywords: engineering material selection; engineering design process; mechanical design; material indices; environmental impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5465/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5465/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5465-:d:272942

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().