An Optimal Design Method in First Order analysis : Shape optimization based on the response surface methodology

Abstract

Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) has been widely utilized in automotive industries in ten years. CAE makes it possible to quantitatively estimate a variety of automotive performance, and to propose an alternative idea to improve it. However, most automotive designers cannot directly utilize CAE since specific well-trained engineers are required to achieve sophisticated operations. In order to overcome this problem, a new concept of CAE, First Order Analysis (FOA), is proposed. In this paper, A new optimization method based on the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is developed for the shape optimization in FOA, and its validity and effectiveness are confirmed using a simple numerical example.