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Multidisciplinary modeling for sustainable engineering design and assessment

Hanes, Rebecca J
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1558-5887
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437204293

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Chemical Engineering.
Design and assessment activities have traditionally been performed with respect to a relatively narrow analysis boundary and without accounting for influences from or on the world outside the boundary. This ``all other things being equal'' mindset results in tractable, generally solvable problems, but it precludes the detection of externalities, consequences that manifest outside the analysis boundary. From a sustainability perspective, externalities - whether they affect the environment, society, the economy, or other systems - cannot be ignored. Moreover, many externalities lead in turn to feedback effects, often negative, on the system of interest. Failing to account for these effects can result in decisions that appear economically, environmentally, or otherwise optimal within a narrow analysis boundary but are sub-optimal or simply incorrect when a larger perspective is taken. To anticipate externalities and avoid the unpleasant surprises they lead to, it is critical to use a holistic perspective for sustainable design and assessment. While this is not a novel concept, to date most efforts towards sustainable design and assessment have been made within single fields of study, including engineering, economic analysis and life cycle assessment. The models used within each discipline are well-suited to the traditional, narrow analysis boundary but frequently capture systems outside that boundary in a simplistic and even unrealistic fashion. This dissertation posits that for sustainability applications, a holistic perspective is best accomplished by combining modeling techniques and other methods from a variety of previously disparate disciplines. These various techniques each have shortcomings and advantages that are often complementary. Combining models from multiple disciplines thus offers an opportunity to create a widely applicable, integrated method with all of the advantages and relatively few of the shortcomings of each individual approach. This dissertation addresses the need for multidisciplinary modeling in sustainability applications. Two methods for sustainable assessment, both of which combine mathematical and statistical modeling with life cycle assessment, are developed. Regression streamlining applies linear regression and model cross-validation techniques to streamlined life cycle assessment, resulting in a simple and intuitive way to generate streamlined life cycle inventories as well as estimates of the error in the streamlined inventories relative to a full inventory. The Comprehensive Allocation Investigation Strategy (CAIS) is a calculation procedure for modeling life cycle inventories as functions of allocation decisions. The results can be used to detect situations in which one life cycle appears environmentally superior to another due to allocation decisions rather than differences in the inventories. The final contribution of this dissertation is the process-to-planet (P2P) modeling framework for sustainable engineering applications. Several applications of the P2P framework to engineering design are presented, with the conclusion that the P2P framework results in environmentally superior designs compared to conventional sustainable design methods. The P2P modeling approach also offers an opportunity to integrate fundamental engineering models with macro-economic equilibrium models, allowing engineering and economic policy design problems to be addressed within the same framework. As a first step towards this integration, a methodology and case study for modeling the effects of an environmental tax policy on a P2P system is presented. Extensions of the existing framework to include partial, general and hybrid equilibrium models are also discussed.
Bhavik Bakshi (Advisor)
Liang-Shih Fan (Committee Member)
James Rathman (Committee Member)
467 p.
Chemical Engineering; Sustainability
Chemical engineering, process systems engineering, sustainability, process design, optimization, life cycle assessment

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Citations

  • Hanes, R. J. (2015). Multidisciplinary modeling for sustainable engineering design and assessment [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437204293

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hanes, Rebecca. Multidisciplinary modeling for sustainable engineering design and assessment. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437204293.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hanes, Rebecca. "Multidisciplinary modeling for sustainable engineering design and assessment." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437204293

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1437204293
1,734
© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Multidisciplinary modeling for sustainable engineering design and assessment by Rebecca J Hanes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.