Ph.D. Qualifiers Examination inENGINEERING DESIGNSpring 2008The study guide states that to be successful on this exam, you must demonstrate that you know:Student # _____________________ 1 Ph.D. Qualifiers Examination in ENGINEERING DESIGN Spring 2008 Directions The study guide states that to be successful on this exam, you must demonstrate that you know: • How to formulate a problem, • How to sketch and understand engineering drawings (projections), • How to obtain order of magnitude results (approximate analysis), • What next steps you would take to get to a more in-depth solution, • How to identify failure criteria and assess failure, • How and when to perform optimization, and • How to implement component design. You should show analytical insight through design solutions that exhibit the level of maturity and understanding expected of graduate students. Remember that there is not a single correct solution, but we are interested in seeing your thought process. This design examination is open-ended to some extent, allowing you to demonstrate your creativity, resourcefulness, and mastery of various aspects of design. The design problem statement may lack certain details, much as problems in industry or academe. As such, you may need to make some reasonable assumptions and suggestions in order to develop potential designs. Be certain to clearly identify any assumptions you feel you need to make in order for a certain design feature or concept to be a reasonable solution. You are expected to address what is known about the design problem, but also what is not known and make suitable design decisions and conclusions. The exam evaluators have no preconceived notion/ideas of the best solutions. Thus, you will be graded on your process of thinking and approach to open design problems. Good luck!Student # _____________________ 2 Problem Statement* Hackers’ Haven, a golf ball driving range in Pendleton South Carolina, has decided to implement an automated, on-demand ball delivery device for their customers. The idea is to get away from having the customer purchase a “bucket” of balls for a fixed price, and instead allow them to hit as many or as few balls as they wish and then be charged based on the actual quantity used. Because the device will also “tee” the ball, it will provide a convenience to the customer. However, no such device currently exists. Your task is to design an automated (fully/semi) device for feeding and teeing-up golf balls at a driving range (indoor/outdoor). The device might utilize a central ball reservoir system feeding each station, or could have an individual reservoir at each station. The specific problem scenario is: • feed balls one at a time from a large reservoir (hopper) • customer initiates ball feed • mechanism places ball on tee • counting mechanism tracks how many balls the customer hits • target sales price for each machine The current layout of the driving range is shown below. Note that changes to this layout are permitted to realize your system. 6 feet x 10 feetRange tee boxesDriving rangeDirection of golf ballClub houseGolf ball hopper~ 15 feet… You have two hours to provide a first cut design on a system to satisfy their needs. Specifically, you will be expected to formulate a problem statement to include the requirements and desired functionality and several concepts with dimensioned engineering sketches. These concepts will be evaluated and examined for different possible modes of failure. Finally, the critical components with respect to failure for the preferred system solution will be examined in greater detail. *This is a hypothetical partnership and problem statement.Student # _____________________ 3 Stage 1: Problem Formulation Part 1.1: Formulate an appropriate problem statement that captures the essence of the problem statement considering both explicit and implicit information. Part 1.2: Enumerate the requirements that are related to this problem. A comprehensive set of requirements is needed. This set of requirements will form the basis for the design contract between corporate sponsors and the design team. Part 1.3: Determine the functionality for the system. Part 1.4: Develop a set of conceptual solutions that address the requirements and the system functionality. Part 1.5: Evolve at least two conceptual solutions into preliminary layout sketches to include important engineering dimensions. Stage 2: Analysis, Evaluation, and Failure Mode Identification Part 2.1: Formulate an analysis plan for the conceptual design solutions. Determine how what analysis (e.g., computational, experimental, physical prototyping) is required. Part 2.2: Evaluate your conceptual solutions. Where necessary, make well reasoned assumptions and/or refine your evaluation criteria Part 2.3: Select a single solution system that you propose for further development. Provide justifications for this selection. Part 2.4: Identify the critical failure modes for the selected solution. Examine the effects of these failure modes and discuss approaches for addressing these. Stage 3: Critical Component Design and Generalization Part 3.1: Select the most critical component or interface in the selected solution. Explain why you feel this is the most critical element. Part 3.2: Implement a detailed solution for the selected component. Provide specific details on how you would progress from conceptual design to detailed design specifications, including analysis steps, manufacturing plan, critical interfaces,