Frugal engineering

Balkrishna C. Rao

Chapter 10 in Handbook of Innovation & Appropriate Technologies for International Development, 2022, pp 140-153 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Planetary crises including climate change are irreversible phenomena possessing the ability to turn catastrophic. As governments and the private-sector around the world are learning to grapple with the ramifications of these crises, it is imperative to adapt science and engineering for tackling them and consequently abet widespread sustainable development. Accordingly, engineering, a strong pillar of economic development and critical to any sector, needs to go frugal in keeping with the tenets of sustainability. Frugal engineering is oriented to- wards engineering products that consume minimal resources; possess robust functionality; and are affordable to the society at large. This would entail "frugalizing" the constituents of engineering. Accordingly, this chapter presents frugality in an important stage of engineering, design. In particular, a modern version of the factor of safety called factor of frugality has been utilized to create the frugal design approach. The potential of this approach for realizing advanced frugal products from scratch in various sectors has been exemplified through the frugal design of a shaft. Moreover, the frugal design approach when coupled with the theory-of-complex-systems has been shown to have applications, particularly in the smart and effective power distribution and management through frugal gridable electric vehicles. Other than a brief description signifying importance of quality control, another important engineering pillar, this chapter closes with necessary developments to make frugal engineering mainstream.

Keywords: Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Innovations and Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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