Optimization Techniques for Problems Arising in Design and Other Engineering Applications

9313286 TITS数值优化技术在设计中的普遍使用一直受到以下因素的阻碍：(I)难以将实际工程设计问题忠实地转换为任何类型的刚性数学优化问题；(Ii)经典优化工具无法有效地考虑设计环境中出现的优化问题的许多显著特征；以及(Iii)无法为设计者提供支持此类能力的强大和合适的环境。以前的研究开发了一种基于交互优化的设计方法，该方法适应了大多数设计问题固有的权衡驱动特征。这包括开发、实施和测试第一批优化算法，以实现超线性收敛速度，同时强制所有连续迭代的可行性(在几个工程环境中是一个关键属性)，以及开发、实施和测试涉及诸如对控制系统的频率或时间响应的约束的连续体的问题的扩展。同时开发了一个基于窗口的分布式计算环境，用于交互地探索优化设计应用程序(控制台)中的权衡。研究将集中在：(1)开发和分析新的方案，以提高可行迭代算法的效率，特别关注具有大量约束的问题；(2)产生这些方案的高质量实施和广泛的测试；(3)进一步开发基于交互优化的系统(CONSOLE)。数值优化几乎应用于每一项工程活动中。可用的方法和软件往往是不充分的，或者技术并不总是与现实情况相关。该项目满足了这一需求。将特别注意诸如有效地处理具有大量不平等约束的问题，或涉及功能规范的问题。正在进行的研究继续为教育和工业做出重大贡献。***

9313286 Tits Generalized use of numerical optimization techniques in design has been hindered by (i) the difficulty to translate in a faithful manner the actual engineering design problem into any kind of rigid mathematical optimization problem, (ii) the inability of classical optimization tools to efficiently take into account the many distinctive features of optimization problems arising in a design context, and (iii) the unavailability of software tools offering to the designer a powerful as well as congenial environment supporting such capabilities. Previous research developed an interactive optimization-based design methodology that accommodates the inherent trade-off driven character of most design problems. This has included the development implementation and testing of the first optimization algorithms that achieve a superlinear rate of convergence while forcing feasibility of all the successive iterates (a crucial property in several engineering contexts) as well as developed, implemented and tested an extension to problems involving a continuum of constraints such as constraints on the frequency or time response of a control system. A window-based, distributed computation environment for interactively exploring tradeoffs arising in optimal design applications (Console) was developed concurrently. The research will concentrate on: (1) the development and analysis of new schemes to enhance the efficiency of the feasible iteration algorithms, with special attention paid to problems with large numbers of constraints; (2) the production of a quality implementation of these schemes and extensive testing; (3) the further development of the interactive optimization-based system (Console). Numerical optimization is used in the context of almost every engineering activity. Available methods and software are often inadequate or techniques are not always relevant to realistic situations. The project addresses this need. Special attention will be p aid to issues such as those of efficiently handling problems with large numbers of inequality constraints, or problems involving functional specifications. The ongoing research continues to make significant educational and industrial contributions. ***