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56Hotrod · Apr 20, 2006, 09:03 PM

A Design of Experiments. Its a 6-sigma tool. Basically, you have inputs (your Xs) and you have your outputs (your Ys). You are trying to optimize on certain Ys. So you do a few experiments. Each time, you input your X (say, intake inlet area, intake runner area, intake runner length, etc...everything you can put into your model)...you get an output, say fluid delta pressures, fluid velocities, etc.

So you want to optimize at a certain set of Ys (minimize pressure loss, or something like that)...you input this X & Y data into some software (Minitab, Design Expert, even Excel will do will some lengthy VB programming). Depending on how much data you do have, you can build transfer functions that simulate each X to a Y (kind of like trendlines, but can be logrithmic, etc). Now, you converge on what Y you want very fast...cause you solve for the Y you want, then validate it in the CFD. Maybe its not quite there, but you just ran another dataset that you can input into your X and Ys, and generate new transfer functions that are stronger, and keep getting more accurate. It really saves a crap load of engineering design work. It is a Design for Six Sigma tool.

I use it way to much at GE designing compressor airfoils...in that instance, we model the blade varying say, thickness and chord and several locations along the span of the blade. We have special software that runs these simulations through Ansys relatively quickly (say a few hours). We then have a bunch of varying thickness and chord sets across the span of the airfoil (these are our Xs)...Our Ys are the frequencies. We optimize the Ys to move the frequencies (or mode shapes) out of the driver boxes (natural frequencies, blade count drivers, etc).

It is really a wonderful tool. Do some digging at Boarders or Google. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff about it.

EDIT: Have a look here. It says free trial. I don't know if the software is restricted on what you can do in the trail...worth a shot.

http://www.sigmazone.com/doepro.htm

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Apr 20, 2006, 09:03 PM	#33
56Hotrod Evolving Member Personal Sales Rating: (2) Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: SC Posts: 231 Drives: 2003 EVO VIII	A Design of Experiments. Its a 6-sigma tool. Basically, you have inputs (your Xs) and you have your outputs (your Ys). You are trying to optimize on certain Ys. So you do a few experiments. Each time, you input your X (say, intake inlet area, intake runner area, intake runner length, etc...everything you can put into your model)...you get an output, say fluid delta pressures, fluid velocities, etc. So you want to optimize at a certain set of Ys (minimize pressure loss, or something like that)...you input this X & Y data into some software (Minitab, Design Expert, even Excel will do will some lengthy VB programming). Depending on how much data you do have, you can build transfer functions that simulate each X to a Y (kind of like trendlines, but can be logrithmic, etc). Now, you converge on what Y you want very fast...cause you solve for the Y you want, then validate it in the CFD. Maybe its not quite there, but you just ran another dataset that you can input into your X and Ys, and generate new transfer functions that are stronger, and keep getting more accurate. It really saves a crap load of engineering design work. It is a Design for Six Sigma tool. I use it way to much at GE designing compressor airfoils...in that instance, we model the blade varying say, thickness and chord and several locations along the span of the blade. We have special software that runs these simulations through Ansys relatively quickly (say a few hours). We then have a bunch of varying thickness and chord sets across the span of the airfoil (these are our Xs)...Our Ys are the frequencies. We optimize the Ys to move the frequencies (or mode shapes) out of the driver boxes (natural frequencies, blade count drivers, etc). It is really a wonderful tool. Do some digging at Boarders or Google. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff about it. EDIT: Have a look here. It says free trial. I don't know if the software is restricted on what you can do in the trail...worth a shot. http://www.sigmazone.com/doepro.htm Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Last edited by 56Hotrod; Apr 20, 2006 at 09:15 PM.
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