An issue in engineering design is a system's design lifetime. Economists study durability choice problems for consumer goods but seldom address lifetime problem(s) of complex engineering systems. The issues for engineering systems are complex and multidisciplinary and require an understanding of the 'technicalities of durability' and the economic implications of the marginal cost of durability and value maximization. Commonly the design lifetime for an infrastructure is set between 30 and 70 years. Satellite lifetimes are also assigned arbitrarily or with limited analysis. This book provides a systemic qualitative and quantitative approach to these problems addressing, first, the technicality of durability, second, the marginal cost of durability, and third, the durability choice problem for complex engineering systems with network externalities (competition and market uncertainty) and obsolescence effects (technology evolution). Since the analyses are system-specific, a satellite example is used to illustrate the essence and provide a quantitative application of said analyses.

This book explores system design life cycle problems for complex engineering systems and satellites.

About the Author
Dr Joseph H. Saleh is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his PhD from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and served as the Executive Director of the Ford-MIT Alliance. His research focuses on issues of design lifetime, and how to embed flexibility in the design of complex engineering systems in general, and aerospace systems in particular. Dr Saleh is the author or co-author of fifty technical publications, and the recipient of numerous awards for his teaching and research contributions. He served as a technical consultant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I.B.M., and has collaborated on numerous research projects with American and European aerospace companies.

Reviews
Review of the hardback: 'This book provides an excellent insight into approaches that can be used to understand better the key drivers in the marginal cost of durability. ... I would recommend [it] as an informative, useful, and practical addition to the engineer's library and look forward to the works on uncertainty and flexibility to follow.' Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers



Book Information
ISBN 9780521867894
Author Joseph H. Saleh
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 688g
Dimensions(mm) 260mm * 182mm * 20mm