System Architecture: Strategy and Product Development for Complex Systems, First Edition

4.3 Analysis of Form in Architecture

With this background, let’s begin the analysis of the form of a real engineering system, the centrifugal pump of Figure 4.5. Box 4.3 contains an explanation of the principles of operation of this pump. This example was chosen as the reference case because it is “modular”; the parts are not absolutely discrete like the members of a team, nor are they integral like the parts of the heart. In addition, the pump has only nine parts. It is a “simple system,” judging on the basis of the guideline presented in Section 3.3 that we find atomic parts at Level 1.

Figure 4.5  Expanded view of the centrifugal pump.

 

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