Vehicle Design
Life Cycle
Thinking - The ‘Big Picture’
Before we
discuss how vehicle parameters affect fuel economy and their
impact on the environment, it is important to consider the ‘big
picture’ when designing for the environment. ‘Life Cycle Thinking’
considers all factors for a product from raw material extraction to
end of life and any cycle in between.
Life Cycle
Thinking
requires the engineer to holistically evaluate the environmental
consequences of a product or activity. Life cycle thinking is
extremely important for Design for Environment, because while
a design could have a positive environmental impact in one area, it
can have an adverse impact on the environment when considering other
factors. Due to this reason, we will discuss design tradeoffs with
each fuel economy/emission improvement that is presented in the
following sections.
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