Virtual reality applications are making valuable contributions to the field of product realization. This paper presents an assessment of the hardware and software capabilities of VR technology needed to support a meaningful integration of VR applications in the product life cycle analysis. Several examples of VR applications for the various stages of the product life cycle engineering are presented as case studies. These case studies describe research results, fielded systems, technical issues, and implementation issues in the areas of virtual design, virtual manufacturing, virtual assembly, engineering analysis, visualization of analysis results, and collaborative virtual environments. Current issues and problems related to the creation, use, and implementation of virtual environments for engineering design, analysis, and manufacturing are also discussed.

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This paper analyzes the problem of disassembling multiple selected components from an assembly, defined as selective disassembly, and presents algorithms for efficient disassembly analysis of geometric models. Applications for selective disassembly include assembling, maintenance and recycling. A new approach called ‘Disassembly Wave Propagation’ is proposed to determine a selective disassembly sequence with minimal component removals from an assembly. This approach defines: (i) disassembly waves to topologically arrange the components denoting the disassembly order and (ii) intersection events between the waves to determine the selective disassembly sequences. In order to evaluate a minimal removal sequence in a feasible computation time, algorithms are proposed that prioritize and process the intersection events based on the order in which they occurred. The proposed algorithms analyze selective disassembly from the geometric perspective and are applicable for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional product assemblies. [S1050-0472(00)01402-1]

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