Pedagogy, Case Study, and Canvas for Sustainable Structural Product Eco-Design

An engineering design case study and related pedagogical support are presented on the topic of sustainable structural product design. Case participants perform the roles of a sustainability product manager, structural engineer, and thermal engineer in the design of a 0.8 kWh vehicle battery assembly with the goal of jointly minimizing cost and carbon footprint while also satisfying stress and deflection constraints. At the frontier of education, the case is unique in providing a design canvas (similar to quad charts used in industry tollgate reviews) with design efficiency and performance measures relative to theoretical minima. In developing the design, industry and graduate student participants grapple with material selection, layout design, and wall thickness as dominating design decisions. Survey instruments were employed to gauge the case effectiveness. Assessed with a five-point Likert scale, all of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that this case study involved a useful problem $({\mathbf{M}}\boldsymbol{=4.83,}\ \mathbf{SE}\boldsymbol{=.090),}$ enhanced their engineering skills $\mathbf{(Nt}\boldsymbol{=4.78,} \mathbf{SE} \boldsymbol{=.101),}$ enhanced awareness of sustainability concerns $(\mathbf{M}\boldsymbol{=4.72,} \mathbf{SE}\boldsymbol{=.109)}$, and increased classroom participation $(\mathbf{M}\boldsymbol{=4.67,}\ \mathbf{SE}\boldsymbol{=.114)}$ relative to other teaching methods. Validated educational outcomes included understanding that (1) the chosen layout design, material selection, and wall thickness determine a majority of the cost and carbon footprint, and (2) minimizing the cost and carbon footprint were not mutually exclusive objectives.