The Industrial Sustainability Lab aims to assist engineering decision makers in efficiently meeting consumer needs, while not causing harm to people or the planet.

 

The key research directions and contributions of the ISL can be categorized under the following three thrusts:

 

Thrust 1. Sustainable Design and Manufacturing: This research thrust aims to advance design methods and tools to improve product economic, environmental, and social performance, simultaneously, as described below:

  • Early Product Design. Work with OSU faculty integrates life cycle analysis (LCA) and automated concept generation to facilitate sustainable design. Work with Penn State University and Wayne State University in NSF CI-TEAM and NSF CooL:SLiCE projects led to a cyber-collaboratory to support sustainable product design education.
  • Design for Manufacturing. Sustainability assessment remains deficient in process planning. With support from DOE, Boeing, NIST, and the Oregon Metals Initiative, various processes have been modeled to characterize sustainability metrics.
  • Sustainable Systems. Research with OSU faculty and Sheldon Manufacturing is integrating system dynamics and sustainable manufacturing for analysis of manufacturing system designs.

 

Thrust 2. Advanced Manufacturing: Methods developed under Thrust 1 can be extended via direct applications in fundamental research into the following novel manufacturing processes and systems:

  • Nanomanufacturing. Research reduced cutting forces and temperatures for a titanium alloy using a metalworking nanofluid (MWnF). To reduce uncertainties of environmental and human health impacts, with support from Boeing and Master Chemical.
  • Electrically-Assisted Machining. Work initiated with OSU faculty to reduce metal cutting force via electric current heating has shown promise, with uncertainties of system energy use, and support from OSU’s General Research Fund.
  • Manufacturing Cost Models. Cost uncertainty is a barrier to the adoption of novel products and processes. Work supported by the U.S. Army and PNNL in extending a process-based modeling method to evaluate cost and environmental impacts for micro-devices and Redox Flow Battery components.

 

Thrust 3. Energy Systems: This research thrust is expected to develop sustainable engineering methods that can be applied in the analysis of alternative energy systems and industrial energy consumption.

  • Renewable Energy. Energy can be recovered from wind, waves, and biomass but requires reliable devices and systems to explore costs and environmental impacts. Similarly, research has explored cost and environmental impacts of new methods and processes for bioenergy production with data provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
  • Industrial Energy Efficiency. Reducing energy use through novel technologies offers promise in improving energy security and availability worldwide. Research funded by an Oregon BEST commercialization grant is developing and applying metrics for energy and thermal management of data centers using conventional and new cooling technology. Industrial energy analysis and student training is ongoing through participation in the U.S. DOE Industrial Assessment Center at OSU.
  • Energy Systems Modeling. Integrated supply chain planning and manufacturing efforts remain focused on requirements such as logistics uncertainties, production technologies, and demand volatilities. This research is focused on the development of science-based models for underutilized forest harvest residue to bioenergy supply chain that integrate economic and environmental factors for network optimization and sustainability assessment in Pacific Northwest, with data provided by the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Graduate and Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Students interested in conducting research that addresses economic, social, and/or environmental sustainability of manufactured products and manufacturing processes and systems are encouraged to contact Dr. Haapala.