Multi-layer integration framework for low carbon design based on design features

Abstract Global warming has currently become the most discussed environmental issue. The major portion of the carbon emission for a product is determined at the design stage of its life cycle. Given that products are made of parts, one of the major difficulties is that existing carbon emission assessment methods are machining process-oriented and lack association with design information, which makes it difficult to support low-carbon design. To address this problem, this paper develops a multi-layer integration framework for part low-carbon design based on the association mechanism among five layers, i.e., design feature, machining process, machining feature, operation feature, and carbon emission feature. The carbon emission assessment model of the part could be obtained by the method of top-down expansion and bottom-up assessment in terms of the design features through the developed framework. To obtain a low carbon design scheme, an improved differential evolution algorithm (IDE) with the multi-layer encoding method is proposed based on the hierarchical relationship of the framework, which aims to minimize the potential carbon emissions of parts and makespan of its machining processes. The proposed methodology is verified by the low carbon design of a flange plate.