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The Contact and Channel Approach (C&C2-A): Relating a System’s Physical Structure to Its Functionality

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An Anthology of Theories and Models of Design

Abstract

Research on theories and models of design is often motivated from observations in designing, i.e. they address a specific purpose and are intended to describe, explain or predict certain phenomena that pose an unsolved challenge both for the research community and for design practitioners. This chapter is dedicated to one of these present challenges in engineering design: to explain and to provide efficient means to describe how the quality of a product’s technical functions and properties depend on the design of its physical characteristics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Examples can be found e.g. in literature about the XiL-framework [30], where Connectors are used in automotive validation scenarios to describe interfaces and models of the external systems ‘street’, ‘environment’, ‘driver’ and ‘remaining drive-train’, e.g. for validating powertrains on a test bench that is implemented into a virtual reality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IPEK—Institute of Product Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

    Albert Albers & Eike Wintergerst

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  1. Albert Albers
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  2. Eike Wintergerst
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Correspondence to Albert Albers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Amaresh Chakrabarti

  2. Campus Limpertsberg, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Lucienne T. M. Blessing

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Albers, A., Wintergerst, E. (2014). The Contact and Channel Approach (C&C2-A): Relating a System’s Physical Structure to Its Functionality. In: Chakrabarti, A., Blessing, L. (eds) An Anthology of Theories and Models of Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6338-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6338-1_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-6337-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6338-1

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