Research Initiation: Hybrid Optimizers for Topological and Multidisciplinary Decision Making in Engineering Design

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In the engineering design process, the decisions pertaining to the topology of the system are in general, based on intuition and experience. Once the topology has been selected, the dimensional variables of the system are sized and optimized for the selected topology. This, however, may not provide the best solution since other competing topologies have already been rejected based on intuition. This research plans to incorporate topological decisions in the framework of design optimization. This will be done by using 0-1 design variables to represent topological decisions involving a choice between alternative designs. Another related problem which will be addressed in this research deals with the support of multidisciplinary considerations in the design process. This will be accomplished through a use of multiple objective functions in the problem formulation. This research will furnish a design tool which can be utilized to (i) generate and evaluate the feasibility and relative merit of alternative design concepts, (ii) help develop detailed optimum designs for promising concepts, and (iii) will provide an impetus for the development of better computer-aided design tools and optimization methodologies to help support preliminary and detailed design activities.