Physical Life Design of Environmentally-Conscious Products Based on Life Cycle Simulation and Mathematical Programming

Abstract

Reuse of product parts is an effective way to reduce environmental impact. A part intended for reuse should be designed to be durable for a period equal to at least two functional lives. However, if excessive physical life span is set to reusable parts the environmental impact may increase since products and reusable parts get obsolete. In this study, a method for setting the optimal physical life span of a reusable part is proposed on the basis of the result obtained with life cycle simulation of environmentally-conscious products circulation and a nonlinear mathematical programming problem, in which environmental impact is minimized. The effectiveness of the proposed method is examined by some numerical examples.