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INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN 3
1.2.1, The design objective (the need)

Chaddock (1975) defined design as, the conversion of an ill-defined requirement into a
satisfied customer.
The designer is creating a design for an article, or a manufacturing process, to fulfil a
particular need. In the design of a chemical process, the need is the public need for the
product, the commercial opportunity, as foreseen by the sales and marketing organisation.
Within this overall objective the designer will recognise sub-objectives; the requirements
of the various units that make up the overall process.
Before starting work the designer should obtain as complete, and as unambiguous, a
statement of the requirements as possible. If the requirement (need) arises from outside the
design group, from a client or from another department, then he will have to elucidate the
real requirements through discussion. It is important to distinguish between the real needs
and the wants. The wants are those parts of the initial specification that may be thought
desirable, but which can be relaxed if required as the design develops. For example, a
particular product specification may be considered desirable by the sales department, but
may be difficult and costly to obtain, and some relaxation of the specification may be
possible, producing a saleable but cheaper product. Whenever he is in a position to do so.
the designer should always question the design requirements (the project and equipment
specifications) and keep them under review as the design progresses.
Where he writes specifications for others, such as for the mechanical design or purchase
of a piece of equipment, he should be aware of the restrictions (constraints) he is placing
on other designers. A tight, well-thought-out, comprehensive, specification of the require-
ments defines the external constraints within which the other designers must work.
1.2.2. Data collection

To proceed with a design, the designer must first assemble all the relevant facts and
data required. For process design this will include information on possible processes,
equipment performance, and physical property data. This stage can be one of the most
time consuming, and frustrating, aspects of design. Sources of process information and
physical properties are reviewed in Chapter 8.
Many design organisations will prepare a basic data manual, containing all the process
"know-how" on which the design is to be based. Most organisations will have design
manuals covering preferred methods and data for the more frequently used, routine, design
procedures.
The national standards are also sources of design methods and data; they are also design
constraints.
The constraints, particularly the external constraints, should be identified early in the
design process.
1.2.3. Generation of possible design solutions

The creative part of the design process is the generation of possible solutions to the
problem (ways of meeting the objective) for analysis, evaluation and selection. In this
activity the designer will largely rely on previous experience, his own and that of others.
It is doubtful if any design is entirely novel. The antecedence of most designs can usually
be easily traced. The first motor cars were clearly horse-drawn carriages without the
horse; and the development of the design of the modern car can be traced step by step
from these early prototypes. In the chemical industry, modern distillation processes have
developed from the ancient stills used for rectification of spirits; and the packed columns
used for gas absorption have developed from primitive, brushwood-packed towers, So,
it is not often that a process designer is faced with the task of producing a design for a
completely novel process or piece of equipment.
The experienced engineer will wisely prefer the tried and tested methods, rather than
possibly more exciting but untried novel designs. The work required to develop new
processes, and the cost, is usually underestimated. Progress is made more surely in small
steps. However, whenever innovation is wanted, previous experience, through prejudice,
can inhibit the generation and acceptance of new ideas; the "not invented here*' syndrome.
The amount of work, and the way it is tackled, will depend on the degree of novelty
in a design project.
Chemical engineering projects can be divided into three types, depending on the novelty
involved:
1. Modifications, and additions, to existing plant; usually carried out by the plant design
group.
2. New production capacity to meet growing sales demand, and the sale of established
processes by contractors. Repetition of existing designs, with only minor design
changes.
3. New processes, developed from laboratory research, through pilot plant, to a
commercial process. Even here, most of the unit operations and process equipment
will use established designs.
The first step in devising a new process design will be to sketch out a rough block
diagram showing the main stages in the process; and to list the primary function (objective)
and the major constraints for each stage. Experience should then indicate what types of
unit operations and equipment should be considered.
Jones (1970) discusses the methodology of design, and reviews some of the special
techniques, such as brainstorming sessions and synectics, that have been developed to
help generate ideas for solving intractable problems. A good general reference on the art
of problem solving is the classical work by Polya (1957); see also Chittenden (1987),
Some techniques for problem solving in the Chemical Industry are covered in a short text
by Casey and Frazer (1984).
The generation of ideas for possible solutions to a design problem cannot be separated
from the selection stage of the design process; some ideas will be rejected as impractical
as soon as they are conceived.
1.2.4. Selection
The designer starts with the set of all possible solutions bounded by the external
constraints, and by a process of progressive evaluation and selection, narrows down the
range of candidates to find the "best" design for the purpose.

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INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN 3

1.2.1, The design objective (the need)

1.2.2. Data collection

1.2.3. Generation of possible design solutions

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