Research in Engineering Design
Volume 3, Number 2 (1991), Pages 87-104.
Abstract
A formal method to allow designers to explicitly make
trade-off decisions is presented.
The methodology can be used
when an engineer wishes to rate the design by the weakest aspect,
or by cooperatively considering the overall performance,
or a combination of these strategies.
The design problem is formulated with preference rankings,
similar to a utility theory or fuzzy sets approach.
This approach separates the design trade-off strategy
from the performance expressions.
The details of the mathematical formulation are presented and discussed,
along with two design examples: one from the preliminary design
domain, and one from the parameter design domain.