Specific energy, defined as the energy consumed by per unit volumetric removal rate, is one of the key metrics used for evaluating the environmental performance of a machining process. Grinding is a traditional machining process, characterized by high specific energy and poor environmental performance. Growing global concerns about climate change...
Sustainability has become an unprecedented priority in global manufacturing due to the growing concerns over issues such as an aging workforce, environmental degradation, and public health. The simultaneous consideration of the economic, environmental, and social aspects – often referred to as the “three pillars of sustainability” – is crucial to...
As manufacturing advancements continue to develop, designers must be able to consider these technologies during the design process. Unfortunately, many of these new technologies, such as additive and advanced joining, have many nuances that require expert knowledge to effectively apply. Additionally, new design techniques, such as topology optimization, allow users...
Existing studies on industrial heat demand have shown that more than 50% of the industrial process heat demand is in the range of low (<60 °C), medium (60-150 °C), and medium-high (<250 °C) temperatures. Most of the manufacturing industries across the world depend on combustion of carbon-based fossil fuels, either...
Changes in the global climate and forest management practices have given rise to increasing numbers and severity of wildfires. More than five million acres burned in the United States in 2017, while in Canada 7.4 million acres burned. In particular, an increasing amount of dead woody biomass is a key...
Manufacturing exists as a stronghold for continuous growth and development of economies, a trend that is likely to continue as the demand for commodities and products grow. Manufacturing drives innovation and productivity in developed nations, as well as promoting economic stability and development in developing nations. However, manufacturing activities pose...
The demand from consumers for more sustainable products, and the need to comply with government regulations motivates manufacturers to evaluate their operations for opportunities to reduce environmental impact and improve economic competitiveness. Manufacturers have actively improved the sustainability performance of their products through the use of sustainability assessment methods and...
New materials with superior mechanical properties, such as increased strength and hardness, have been developed to allow for new and improved products. However, the mechanical properties that make these materials useful also makes them difficult to process using conventional methods. New machining processes need to be developed to generate products...
Integrated manufacturing systems, a combination of subtractive, additive, and joining processes, provide a competitive advantage for manufacturing organizations. As product designs become more complex and capital more scarce, an ideal combination of advanced manufacturing technologies (e.g., powder bed fusion or friction welding), in tandem with traditional subtractive manufacturing systems, can...
Manufacturing industry drives economic activity and growth around the world, but manufacturing activities consume large amounts of material, energy, and labor resources. Therefore, the impacts of manufacturing need to be accounted for and reduced. Direct benefits of manufacturing are products and income, which, in turn, influence the lives of people...
As the growth in demand for sustainable manufacturing continues, companies must begin to make conscious design decisions with regard to the sustainability of their products. This means balancing economics of production with environmental and social performance. Thus, design and manufacturing engineers must consider economic, environmental, and social aspects simultaneously when...
The research explored in this thesis helps provide a better understanding of efforts that have been undertaken to more precisely calculate environmental impacts and human health risks, such as energy consumption, carbon footprint, and toxicity, to support environmental sustainability assessment of products. The work is comprised of two research objectives,...
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have demonstrated the ability to improve lubrication and thermal conductivity, and stand as promising metalworking lubricant and coolant additives due to their low cost compared to other NPs. While nanomaterials are a focus of research due to their potential to enable advanced technologies, little is...
In the U.S. there are increasing energy demands that require an ever-increasing need for the large-scale use of new energy resources. Specifically, sporadic renewable energy sources are being incorporated into utility energy portfolios. Thus, supporting stationary energy storage technologies are needed to make these renewable sources reliable and feasible for...
A key application of microchannel process technology (MPT) is its implementation in heat exchanger devices, since a larger surface contact area can be realized than in conventional approaches, thus achieving high heat transfer efficiency. To justify high volume production of configurations validated as prototypes, and to select from among the...
The use of fossil fuels and their related impact on the environment and global warming have encouraged societies to pursue more sustainable and renewable alternatives, e.g., forest-based bio-oil. Thus, a vital need to decrease the level of greenhouse gas emissions and the tendency of nations to reduce their dependency on...
Wind energy is a promising alternative energy source due to its environmental, economic, and social benefits and, as such, has garnered public support and government incentives for its development and implementation. With the growing number of wind parks in Oregon, a life cycle assessment (LCA) study for a representative new...
Sustainability has been the focus of intense discussions over the past two decades, with topics around the entire product life cycle. In the manufacturing phase, research has been focused solely on environmental impact assessment or environmental impact and cost analysis in its assessment of sustainability. However, few efforts have investigated...
Interest in accounting for environmental impacts of products, processes, and systems during the design phase is increasing. Numerous studies have undertaken investigations for reducing environmental impacts across the product life cycle. Efforts have also been launched to quantify such impacts more accurately. Life cycle energy consumption and carbon footprint are...
Current life cycle assessment tools are often deficient in assisting design for sustainable manufacturing efforts. Integrating an improved assessment method into a decision support framework will provide a means for designers and engineers to better understand the impacts of their decisions. A unit process modeling-based sustainability assessment method is presented...
Lower production costs are a common goal of many manufacturers as part of their continuous improvement strategies. A large portion of production costs for manufacturers is the machining of metals to form components. Metal machining is accompanied by friction and heat which is dealt with using metalworking fluids such as...
Micro- and nanotechnologies are promising advancements across many industrial sectors, including alternative energy, chemical processing, and healthcare. In particular, a focus of research has been in manufacturing process development aimed at microdevice cost reduction and quality improvement. Microdevices take advantage of enhanced heat and mass transfer to improve energy and...