Synthesis of Engineering Decisions with an Evolving Feasible Space

A methodology is presented to assist the synthesis of engineering decisions based on the representation of feasible space. Given a parametric model and initial specifications, the Extensive Simplex Method is proposed to traverse the extreme points of an approximate linear model. The connected extreme points are projected to a set of two-dimensional viewing planes to visualize the feasible space. Based on the established bounds of the feasible space, the designer can assess the system performance capability, evaluate the feasibility of design alternatives, negotiate the trade-off of system performance attributes, and eventually converge to a desirable engineering design. The method is applied to a beam design problem throughout the design process of concept selection, parametric design refinement, and inverse reasoning. The result indicates that the proposed methodology can help the designer not only to obtain a flexible design solution with better overall system performance, but also to gain insight to the design problem and its specifications. Such insight into the problem leads to increased competence in product design.