The Influence of Architectural Design Decisions on the Formulation of MDAO Problems

Kurzfassung

Formulating system architecture design problems as optimization problems has the potential to help reduce bias in searching the combinatorial design space, and help find novel system architectures to better meet the challenges of the future. Typical types of design decisions present in architecture optimization problems, however, pose some special challenges to currently existing MDO problem formulations. Design variables are mixed-discrete, a hierarchy might exist between design variables where one design variable can deactivate another, and there might be multiple conflicting objectives to optimize for simultaneously. This poster explores some of the impacts these effects can have on MDO problems, in particular regarding the inclusion or exclusion of analysis blocks.