Fuzzy Pareto Frontiers in the Multidisciplinary Analysis of System Architectures, Insertion of New Technologies into Systems under Uncertainty

By Rudy Smaling
Doctoral Candidate, Engineering Systems Division
Director, Hydrogen Center of Competence, Air & Emissions Technologies,

Abstract:
This seminar introduces the concept of fuzzy Pareto frontiers stemming in part from uncertainty in the analysis of concept system architectures in the context of new technology insertion into an existing complex system. The general approach in analyzing the system design or architecture trade-offs in the multi-disciplinary, multi-objective analysis is by generating a set of non-dominated solutions or Pareto frontier. We suggest in this work that near-Pareto solutions should also be considered in the analysis. However, including Pareto and near-Pareto solutions in the analysis may be cumbersome due to the potentially large number of solutions. A filtering scheme is proposed to further reduce the set of solutions that include Pareto and near-Pareto points, by explicitly linking the objective space solutions to the originating design space. A case study of infusing a new technology, the plasmatron, to enable lower emissions and better fuel economy for internal combustion gasoline engines is presented.