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This paper proposes, demonstrates, and validates a protocol to formalise mechanical function verb definitions to support automated analysis of early design concepts, specifically, physics-based model checking using the conservation laws. Present graph-based function structures rely on controlled vocabularies of verbs and nouns to model functions and flows. Currently, all vocabularies define these terms in plain text, allowing inconsistent interpretation and term usage in models, thus making the models unsuitable for formal computational reasoning. To address this limitation, two types of model-level consistencies – topological and conservational – are identified through model examination as critical requirements for physics-based reasoning. A protocol is then demonstrated to evolve three verbs – Branch, Distribute, and Convert_Energy – from their textual definitions into formal classes that include the necessary information elements to support this reasoning. These verbs are used to construct function models, which are then used to simulate reasoning by computer algorithms, thus validating that the definitions indeed support conservation-based model checks at the conceptual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]