Preference Set-based Design Method Research Articles

Multi-Objective Design of EMI Filter with Uncertain Parameters by Preference Set-Based Design Method and Polynomial Chaos Method

Multi-Objective Design of EMI Filter with Uncertain Parameters by Preference Set-Based Design Method and Polynomial Chaos Method

Upgradable Design for Reduction of Production Cost and CO<sub>2</sub> Emission - Case Study of a Laptop Computer

An upgrade product design method is one of the efficient design methods for reducing environmental loads caused by mass production, consumption, and disposal. This method seeks to design a product that can adapt to future required performance and functions via component upgrade by exchanging components in the early phase of design. Because considerations of future product performance and functions include uncertain design information, an accurate prediction is very difficult. Therefore, this study defines uncertain design information as ranged sets, and applies a preference set-based design method that can correspondingly obtain ranged sets of design solutions. In previous studies, proposed methods were focused on product performance enhancement without quantitative consideration of environmental loads. Hence, this study proposes an upgrade product design method that can address the enhancement of product performance, while concurrently reducing production cost and environmental load, which is herein strictly defined as the amount of CO2 emission. Finally, our proposed upgrade product design method is applied to a laptop PC design problem to demonstrate its utility.

Set-based Design Method for Multi-objective Structural Design with Conflicting Performances Under Topological Change

In car manufacturing, sustainable structural design with multiple conflicting objectives like weight reduction for less CO2 emission, strength and rigidity is essential. This research focuses on topological optimization method with which greater weight reduction is expected to be achieved. In view of the application of preference set-based design (PSD) method, topologically satisfied design is considered. We applied PSD method to the design of topological model. This study indicates the efficacy of PSD method to topological design problems including weight reduction aspect.

Application of preference set-based design method to multilayer porous materials for sound absorbency and insulation

Handling uncertainties at the early phase of design is of great importance for front-loading product development. Designers often have preferences for design parameters of a design object even if they include uncertain information. The present study proposes a new set-based design approach for the early phase of design that intrinsically contains various sources of uncertainties. The proposed design approach, a preference set-based design (PSD) method, obtains a ranged set of feasible design solutions while incorporating the designer's preference for design parameters represented as preference functions instead of a single-point solution under design uncertainties by eliminating infeasible and inferior subsets of solutions. The present study applies the PSD method to a material design problem of a multilayer sound absorption/insulator including porous material. It is difficult to predict the performance because of a number of design parameters such as Biot parameters (i.e. porosity, density, tortuosity, flow resistivity, viscous characteristic length, loss factor and Poisson's ratio of a material) and production tolerance. We develop a performance prediction system based on the PSD method that can obtain the ranged set of design solutions that satisfy the ranged sets of performance requirements through set-to-set space mapping from design space to performance space and space narrowing to eliminate infeasible design subspaces. Through the application of design of the material design problem, the advantages of the PSD method for obtaining the multi-objective solution under design uncertainties toward front-loading product development are discussed.

Collaborative engineering among designers with different preferences: Application of the preference set–based design to the design problem of an automotive front-side frame

The advancement of computer networks and information technologies has been rapidly changing the manufacturing environment of the industrial age to that of the current information era. The engineering philosophy has been shifted from concurrent engineering to collaborative engineering among the respective areas of expertise in a design space. Handling uncertainties in an initial design process is of great importance, particularly for collaborative engineering. For collaborative engineering, designers having different preferences in the different disciplines need to represent their own possible design solutions or design solution spaces, and they also need to understand the other designers’ design solution spaces. We have proposed a preference set-based design method that enables a flexible and robust design under various sources of uncertainties, while capturing a designer’s preference. In this study, the proposed method was applied to a real industrial multi-objective design problem (i.e. an automotive front-side frame design). This study discusses the suitability of our proposed approach for obtaining the multi-objective satisfactory solutions that reflect the different design preferences of different designers in their design solutions for collaborative engineering.

Design Support System by Combination of 3D-CAD and CAE with Preference Set-based Design Method

Various computer-based simulation tools such as 3D-CAD systems and CAE are widely used to design products at the early phase of design. Designers must search the optimal solution that satisfies a number of performance requirements by repeating analysis and modification of the CAD models. They need to confirm the results of CAE analysis until they can obtain a better design solution. These works impose a heavy burden on designers and analysts. Therefore, design works can be more efficient if we can automate these iterative processes. Moreover, the early phase of design contains multiple sources of uncertainty in describing design, and nevertheless the decision-making process at this phase exerts a critical effect upon drawing a successful design. Therefore, handling the uncertainties in the early phase of design has great importance especially for concurrent engineering (CE). The previous series of our studies have proposed a preference set-based design (PSD) method that enables the flexible and robust design while incorporating designer’s preference structure. In contrast to conventional optimization techniques, this method generates a ranged set of design solutions that satisfy sets of performance requirements. The combination of 3D-CAD and CAE with PSD method can be more powerful design support system. In this study, a system based on PSD method is implemented by combination of 3D-CAD and CAE, and a design example of a swing arm is demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed system for obtaining the multi-objective satisfactory solutions reflecting the designers’ intentions.

209 設計者の設計意図の考慮と多目的満足化を実現するセットベース設計手法

The conceptual design phase contains multiple sources of uncertainty in describing design, and nevertheless the decision-making process at this phase exerts a critical effect upon drawing a successful design. The proposed preference set-based design method, consisting of set representation, set propagation, set modification, and set narrowing, which enables the flexible and robust design while incorporating designer's intention. In contrast to the conventional optimization techniques, this method generates a ranged set of design solutions that satisfy changing sets of performance requirements. This paper presents the applicability of our proposal for obtaining the multi-objective satisfactory design solutions by applying to an automotive front-side frame.