Integrating Circular Strategies into Product Concept Design: A Proxy-Based LCA Approach Within the MBSE Framework

Planet eco-mourning motivates assuring full sustainability to new industrial products. This requires implementing circular economy within the product lifecycle development. Modularity, maturity and available standards candidate the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to this purpose. This paper defines details of the integration between design for sustainability and MBSE. Environment is assumed as a primary stakeholder, alongside customer, producer, and regulatory bodies. Qualitative tools, like the LIDS Wheel and Eco-checklists, identify sustainability-related requirements, but designer must clearly prioritize competing circular strategies, such as recycling, reuse, remanufacturing, and refurbishing, for life extension. Novelty of proposed approach consists in applying a proxy-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It allows comparing quantitatively circular strategies, even in the early design stage. Two steps are foreseen, i.e. quantitative LCA investigates representative reuse and recycling scenarios, and then methodology is generalized to support strategic decision making within system eco-design. Two case studies are exploited to show beneficial effects of integrated sustainable MBSE, as solar panels and internal combustion engine.