Interaction

Interaction is a physical touch between components of the engineeging system and/or components of its supersystem.

Overview

Interaction is one of key terms in function analysis for devices (not applied for processes) as the a fundamental principle is that for any function to exist between two components, there must be an interaction (physical touch) between them.

The occurrence of interactions depends directly on how components are defined. Identifying interactions between components that are substances is usually straightforward – they occur when these components come into direct contact, even at a single point.

If a component is a field, such as an electromagnetic field (light), there is a physical interaction between the field and its emitter (e.g., a light bulb) as well as between the field and its receiver (e.g., a watching person). However, in this case, the emitter (the light bulb) and receiver (the person) do not interact directly with each other.

If a component is defined as a combination of a substance and a field (e.g., a light bulb along with the electromagnetic field it emits), then an interaction with the receiver does exist (the light bulb “touches” the person through the light).

Interactions between components are identified during interaction analysis, which is the second stage of function analysis for devices. They are recorded in the form of an interaction matrix, which then serves as the input for function modeling, the final stage of the analysis.

Interaction

Overview

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