What is Design Explorer?

Design Explorer is an advanced optimization algorithm that was developed to efficiently solve difficult "real-world" design problems. Design Explorer can effectively solve many design problems that cause traditional optimization algorithms to fail.

Long Run-Times: Because it utilizes sophisticated surrogate modeling techniques, Design Explorer is able to minimize the number of times that it needs to run your analysis code. This means that Design Explorer can be used to solve design problems that would otherwise be impractical because of long run times.

Non-Smooth, Noisy Design Spaces: Many numerically sophisticated analysis codes (FEA, CFD) can produce output that does not vary smoothly as a function of the design variables. Unlike traditional gradient based algorithms, Design Explorer is not hampered by this non-smooth/noisy output data because it does not use your analysis code to compute gradients.

Non-Robust Analysis Codes: It is not unusual for specialized analysis codes to fail either randomly or for some specific combinations of the input variables. Design Explorer is able to automatically ignore these failures and continue to effectively search the design space.

Local Minima: Design Explorer is a global search algorithm, so it is less likely to "get stuck" in a local minimum. It is able to find solutions to multi-modal design problems in significantly less time than either multi-start gradient based algorithms or traditional global search algorithms (genetic algorithms, simulated annealing).

What Types of Problems are Appropriate for Design Explorer?

Model analysis and optimization can be valuable for all types of problems. However, the payoff is largest for problems involving expensive computer simulations. For these problems, surrogate modeling may be the only viable method for systematic design space exploration.

Design Explorer is geared for problems with a moderate number- less than 100-of continuous variables. Although these are not firm limits, optimization is most practical when fewer than 50 surrogate models are involved in the objective function and constraints.

Proven Success

Design Explorer is the product of ten years of R&D at the Boeing Mathematics and Computing Group. The Design Explorer tools have been used successfully at Boeing to help design several different types of engineering systems, including:

Aircraft configurations
Welding and Machining Process Design
Helicopter rotors and space vehicles
Multidisciplinary wing planform design
Engine nozzle performance