SGER: Exploring Sustainable Engineering Design Metrics through Cell Biology Analogy

这项探索性研究小额赠款的目的是通过与细胞生物学的类比来研究开发离散产品可持续工程设计指标的可行性。这项工作的基础是扩展工业生态学和仿生学的概念，以适应工程设计中的优化原则。工业生态学以生物体系统中的生物代谢为模型，其中投入产出分析或能量和物料流分析用于建立系统的有效性程度。工程设计指标是必要的，以便设计优化工具，包括可持续发展的目标可以开发。这个项目的新颖之处在于，重点将扩展到生物细胞的规模，其中基于可用（免费）能量的有效细胞行为模型将与可持续产品的设计相关。这个高风险、高潜力项目的基本假设是，热力学麦克斯韦关系可以代表细胞（产品）和代谢（工业生态系统）之间的连通性。由于这些关系是基于自由能的导数，因此可以为产品建立和测试算法，确定可以作为可持续产品设计指标的状态变量。这个项目的重大风险在于不确定性，虽然能源（可用性）和自由能是生态学和细胞生物学（有效性和效率）的热力学基础，但我们不知道是否可以在工业生态学和可持续产品设计之间建立这样一座桥梁。这项研究的最大潜力在于，当可持续产品设计的指标能够与工业生态学和环境设计的原则相结合时，将会产生更广泛的影响。一旦确定了这些指标，就可以修改工程设计工具，开发新的工具，为工程师提供设计和证明？格林:产品。将可持续性作为产品设计的优先选择将成为一个可实现的目标。

The objective of this Small Grant for Exploratory Research is to investigate the feasibility of developing metrics for sustainable engineering design of discrete products through an analogy with cell biology. The basis for this work is to extend the concepts of industrial ecology and biomimicry to accommodate the principles of optimization in engineering design. Industrial ecology is modeled on the biological metabolism that occurs across a system of organisms, where input-output analysis or exergy and materials flow analysis are used to establish the degree of effectiveness of the system. Engineering design metrics are necessary so that design optimization tools that include sustainability objectives can be developed. The novel aspect of this project is that the focus will extend to the scale of the biological cell, where the model for efficient cell behavior based upon available (free) energy will be related to the design of sustainable products. The fundamental hypothesis of this high risk, high potential project is that the thermodynamic Maxwell relationships can represent the connectivity between the cell (product) and the metabolism (industrial ecology system). Since these relationships are based upon the derivatives of free energy, it is expected that algorithms can be established and tested for the product, identifying state variables that can serve as metrics for the sustainable product design. The significant risk in this project lies in the uncertainty that while exergy (availability) and free energy are the thermodynamic foundations for ecology and cell biology (effectiveness and efficiency), it is not known whether such a bridge can be established between industrial ecology and sustainable product design. The greatest potential for this research lies in the broader impacts that would be achieved when metrics for sustainable product design could be integrated with the principles of industrial ecology and design for the environment. Once these metrics are identified, engineering design tools could be modified and new tools developed that would provide engineers with the ability to design and demonstrate the veracity of ?green: products. Setting sustainability as a preference for the design of products would then become an achievable objective.