Computation-intensive design problems are becoming increasingly common in manufacturing industries. The computation burden is often caused by expensive analysis and simulation processes in order to reach a comparable level of accuracy as physical testing data. To address such a challenge, approximation or metamodeling techniques are often used. Metamodeling techniques have been developed from many different disciplines including statistics, mathematics, computer science, and various engineering disciplines. These metamodels are initially developed as “surrogates” of the expensive simulation process in order to improve the overall computation efficiency. They are then found to be a valuable tool to support a wide scope of activities in modern engineering design, especially design optimization. This work reviews the state-of-the-art metamodel-based techniques from a practitioner’s perspective according to the role of metamodeling in supporting design optimization, including model approximation, design space exploration, problem formulation, and solving various types of optimization problems. Challenges and future development of metamodeling in support of engineering design is also analyzed and discussed.

This paper addresses the difficulty of the previously developed Adaptive Response Surface Method (ARSM) for high-dimensional design problems. The ARSM was developed to search for the global design optimum for computation-intensive design problems. This method utilizes Central Composite Design (CCD), which results in an exponentially increasing number of required design experiments. In addition, the ARSM generates a complete new set of CCD samples in a gradually reduced design space. These two factors greatly undermine the efficiency of the ARSM. In this work, Latin Hypercube Design (LHD) is utilized to generate saturated design experiments. Because of the use of LHD, historical design experiments can be inherited in later iterations. As a result, ARSM only requires a limited number of design experiments even for high-dimensional design problems. The improved ARSM is tested using a group of standard test problems and then applied to an engineering design problem. In both testing and design application, significant improvement in the efficiency of ARSM is realized. The improved ARSM demonstrates strong potential to be a practical global optimization tool for computationintensive design problems. Inheriting LHD samples, as a general sampling strategy, can be integrated into other approximation-based design optimization methodologies.

Computation-intensive design problems are becoming increasingly common in manufacturing industries. The computation burden is often caused by expensive analysis and simulation processes in order to reach a comparable level of accuracy as physical testing data. To address such a challenge, approximation or metamodeling techniques are often used. Metamodeling techniques have been developed from many different disciplines including statistics, mathematics, computer science, and various engineering disciplines. These metamodels are initially developed as “surrogates” of the expensive simulation process in order to improve the overall computation efficiency. They are then found to be a valuable tool to support a wide scope of activities in modern engineering design, especially design optimization. This work reviews the state-of-the-art metamodel-based techniques from a practitioner’s perspective according to the role of metamodeling in supporting design optimization, including model approximation, design space exploration, problem formulation, and solving various types of optimization problems. Challenges and future development of metamodeling in support of engineering design is also analyzed and discussed.

Virtual Prototyping (VP) technique has been interpreted in many different ways, which causes confusion and misunderstanding among researchers and practitioners. Based on a review of the current related research and application, this paper proposes a definition of VP as well as components of a virtual prototype. VP is then compared with and distinguished from virtual reality (VR), virtual environment (VE), and virtual manufacturing (VM) techniques. Given the proposed definition and review of VP, future VP related research topics are suggested.

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Both multiple objectives and computation-intensive black-box functions often exist simultaneously in engineering design problems. Few of existing multi-objective optimization approaches addresses problems with expensive black-box functions. In this paper, a new method called the Pareto set pursuing (PSP) method is developed.By developing sampling guidance functions based on approximation models, this approach progressively provides a designer with a rich and evenly distributed set of Pareto optimal points. This work describes PSP procedures in detail. From testing and design application, PSP demonstrates considerable promises in efficiency, accuracy, and robustness. Properties of PSP and differences between PSP and other approximation-based methods are also discussed. It is believed that PSP has a great potential to be a practical tool for multi-objective optimization problems.

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