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

在工程设计过程中，与系统拓扑相关的决策通常基于直觉和经验。选择拓扑后，将针对选定的拓扑调整系统标注变量的大小并进行优化。然而，这可能不会提供最佳解决方案，因为基于直觉的其他竞争拓扑已经被拒绝。本研究计划将拓扑决策纳入设计优化的框架中。这将通过使用0-1个设计变量来表示涉及备选设计选择的拓扑决策来实现。本研究将解决的另一个相关问题涉及设计过程中多学科考虑的支持。这将通过在问题表述中使用多个目标函数来实现。这项研究将提供一种设计工具，可用于(I)生成和评估替代设计概念的可行性和相对优点，(Ii)帮助为有前途的概念开发详细的优化设计，以及(Iii)将推动开发更好的计算机辅助设计工具和优化方法，以帮助支持初步和详细的设计活动。

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.