An Optimization Based Methodology to Design Flexible Systems Subjected to Changing Operating Conditions

Flexible systems maintain a high performance level under changing operating conditions or design requirements. Flexible systems acquire this powerful feature by allowing critical aspects of their design con guration to change during the operating life of the product or system. In the design of such systems, designers are often required to make critical decisions regarding the exible and the non-exible aspects of the design con guration. We propose an optimization based methodology to design exible systems that allows a designer to effectively make such critical decisions. The proposed methodology judiciously generates candidate optimal design versions of the exible system. These design versions are evaluated using multiobjective techniques in terms of the level of exibility and the associated penalty. A highly exible system maintains optimal performance under changing operating conditions, but could result in increased cost and complexity of operation. The proposed methodology provides a systematic approach for incorporating designer preferences and selecting the most desirable design version — a feature absent in several recently proposed exible system design frameworks. The developments of this paper are demonstrated with the help of a exible three-bar-truss design example.