Development of a Pareto-based Concept Selection Method

Abstract

This paper introduces the notion of s-Pareto optimality for concept selection in engineering design. We focus on the use of s-Pareto frontiers to define and classify concept dominance and from such, perform concept selection. We define an s-Pareto frontier as a set of Pareto optimal solutions originating from the Pareto frontiers of a set of concepts. A single resulting Pareto frontier for the set of concepts is formed and is called an s-Pareto frontier. SPareto based concept selection can be characterized as one that capitalizes on the benefits of computational optimization during the conceptual phase of design – before a general design concept has been chosen. In this paper, an introduction to s-Pareto optimality and a method for generating s-Pareto frontiers are given. An approach for using s-Pareto optimality for concept selection is then presented. The methods proposed in this paper can effectively aid to eliminate dominated design concepts, keep competitive concepts and ultimately choose a given design alternative from the chosen design concept. A truss design problem is used to illustrate the usefulness of the method.