Design Theory and Methods using CAD/CAE

3.12. Summary

In this chapter, we discussed a broad range of topics in design optimization. We started with a simple beer can design problem, then moved into basic optimization concepts—specifically, the optimality conditions. We introduced three major solution approaches: optimality criteria, the graphical method, and the search method, for both constrained and unconstrained problems of linear and nonlinear functions. We pointed out that the search methods using numerical algorithms, including gradient-based and non-gradient-based approaches, are most general. We also mentioned that the gradient-based approach requires far fewer function evaluations; therefore, it is better suited to large-scale problems. We discussed several classical and widely ...