For those of you curious, Jake was lucky enough to be in Florida watching the MUOS-4 launch this morning and won’t be back until Friday. This is a great example of a complex system like the one we will be designing (and uses liquid hydrogen too!).
Now that you have seen the competition requirements, talked with our customers/clients, and had a chance to read relevant literature on your specific topic, you should have a pretty good understanding of what is required and some of the specific challenges we will have to rise to meet. It’s time to start talking systems design!
No engineer, regardless of how talented or experienced, will come up with the winning design in one go. Did you think ULA designed the perfect rocket to launch MUOS-4 in their first go at it? No! As we’ve discussed, there is no algorithm you can follow to get the perfect design. Engineering systems is a iterative, heuristic process – the more iterations or potential solutions you can run through, the better your design becomes. Today, we’ll run through several iterations of the whole system, and by the end of class everyone should have a good idea of the full system design we’re moving forward with.
Initial System Designs:
- Compressor Team:
- Container Team:
- H2 Purification Team:
- H2 Source Team:
- H2 Storage Team:
- Heat Exchanger and Piping Team:
- PLC and Sensors Team:
- User Interface Team:
- Vacuum Chamber Team:
- Vortex Tube Team:
- Summer Guests Team:
Now that you’ve each presented a potential design, we’ll look at how to make toast. Keep this in mind as we take a few minutes to iterate to the next design!
Revised System Designs:
- Compressor Team:
- Container Team:
- H2 Purification Team:
- H2 Source Team:
- H2 Storage Team:
- Heat Exchanger and Piping Team:
- PLC and Sensors Team:
- User Interface Team:
- Vacuum Chamber Team:
- Vortex Tube Team:
Vote on the winning revised design, and by sending me a Slack direct message with your top two designs.
By Friday you need to:
- Send your TA a direct message in Slack with the names of the teams with your top two favorite system designs. I’ll post the top designs to the announcements.
- Start your subsystem process flow and create an editable document that will allow you to continuously update and refine your design. I would recommend using Dia Diagram, but feel free to use Visio, Word, PowerPoint, or whatever system your team is comfortable with. Upload this to OneDrive, so everyone on your team can access.
- Once your subsystem process flow is complete, you should have a pretty good idea of your subsystem’s requirements. Make a list of everything your subsystem NEEDS to do, and a list of everything your subsystem SHOULD do. Upload this to OneDrive as well.