4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Table of Contents
1. Introduction

2. A Running Example
1. Description of the brake design problem

2. Static structural setup

3. Modal setup

4. Transient thermal setup

5. Transfering geometry and model across analysis modules

6. De ne input parameters

3. Background Knowledge

4. Design of Experiments

5. Sensitivity Analysis

6. Optimization

7. Checklist

Introduction
This is a step-by-step tutorial of the ANSYS Design of Experiment (DOE) and Optimization tools. These tools will allow
you to better validate and understand your engineering model and further re ne your design for speci c properties of
interest. We will skip some mathematical details but focus on explaining how things should be done.

We encourage you to also read related chapters in the o cial ANSYS Design Exploration User’s Guide.

NOTE: This tutorial is tested on ANSYS 16, 17.1 and 17.2.

A Running Example
Before we start, please prepare the CAD model of your design and determine attributes that you want to design for.
You can also use the following sample problem on vehicle brake design. The model le of the brake can be downloaded
here (.agdb). The raw model is here (.stp). All credits go to A. Durgude, A. Vipradas, S. Kishore, and S. Nimse (see their
MAE598 Design Optimization project report (2016)).

Description of the brake design problem

To summarize, the brake design problem has the following objectives:

Design a brake disc for emergency braking conditions with minimal volume

Minimize the maximum stress in the brake disc

Maximize the rst natural frequency of the brake disc

Minimize the maximum temperature in the brake disc

The three subsystems are as follows:

Structural Analysis: The brake disc has to sustain the pressure from the hydraulically actuated brake pads during
sudden braking conditions. Stresses are induced due to friction between the brake pads and the disc. The disc
also experiences centrifugal body forces due to its rotation. Resultant stresses generated due these forces can
lead to material failure. Therefore, it is of prime importance to make sure that the stresses in the disc are
minimized.

Modal Analysis: Free modal analysis is performed to ensure that the disc’s rst natural frequency is higher than
the engine ring frequency. This guarantees that the disc does not experience failure due to resonance.

Thermal Analysis: Braking in a vehicle takes place due to friction between the brake pads and the rotor disc. This
leads to heat ux generation in the disc which consequently results in increase in its temperature and thermal
stresses. Emergency braking conditions induce high temperatures that damage the contact surfaces. It is
therefore essential to minimize the temperature to prevent disc wear and tear.

The following sections describes how these analysis are set up.

Static structural setup

De ne Material: In Project Schematic, click on Engineering Data, then click Engineering Data Sources->General
Materials, from the list, nd “Gray Cast Iron” and click the “add” button (the plus sign). The sign with a blue book
will appear after we assign this material to an object.

Load Geometry: In Project Schematic, click on Geometry, then create geometry in DesignModeler or import a
agdb le.

Mesh the Geometry: In Project Schematic, double click on Model to open the Mechanical screen. To setup the
mesh: Right click Mesh -> Method -> Select all the bodies and then select Tetrahedrons in Method option

ASU MAE540: Advanced Product Design

Right click Mesh -> Sizing -> Select inner faces of the brake pads and set element size to 3 mm. This is because the
pad is relatively thin and has higher stress concentration than other places Therefore ner mesh will give us
http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 2/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial
pad is relatively thin, and has higher stress concentration than other places. Therefore ner mesh will give us

more accurate simulation result. NOTE: For student version, you may not be able to run the simulation if the mesh
size is higher than the limitation.

Assign Material: Still in the Mechanical screen, notice the two parts under Geometry in the outline window.
These are the brake disk and the brake pads. Assign material types by clicking on each, and go to the Details
window below the outline, nd Material->Assignment, choose Gray Cast Iron for the disk, and Structural Steel for
the pads.

De ne Boundary Conditions: Right click Static Structural -> Insert -> Rotational Velocity -> Set 250 rad/s to the y-
axis of the brake disk.

Right click on Connections, create a Revolute Joint. Set up the joint as shown below: In Details, choose “Body-
http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 3/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial
g J p j y
Ground” for “connection type”, choose the highlighted (blue) circle for “scope”.

Right click Static Structural -> Insert -> Pressure -> Enter the values as shown by selecting the outer brake pad
faces. Do this for each outer brake pad face.

Click on Connections->Contacts in the outline window, and right click to add Manual Contact Region. Set up a
frictional contact as shown below. Do this for both contact regions between the pads and the disk.

Right click Static Structural -> Insert -> Displacement -> Fix x- and z-axis displacement of all the faces of brake pads

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 4/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Select the desired output values and solve by right clicking on Solution and hitting Solve. Set Equivalent von-Mises
stress as output parameter.

Note that the solution is sensitive to various settings, including mesh size, nonlinear and thermal strain e ects of
the chosen materials, and whether large de ection is considered.

Modal setup

Drag Modal Analysis box on the Geometry of Static Structural box. Same geometry and mesh settings as discussed
earlier.

Right click Brake pad parts in Geometry -> Click Suppress (We want the natural frequency of the brake disc only)

Click Analysis Settings and enter “Max Modes to Find” as 10

Right click Solution -> Insert -> Deformation -> Total -> Enter the desired mode number. The rst 6 modes are the
rigid body modes. We do not need those. Parametrize the frequency of mode 7 which is the rst deformation
mode.

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 5/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Transient thermal setup

Drag Transient Thermal box on the Geometry tab of the Static Structural box.

Same Geometry and Mesh settings as Static Structural. Suppress brake pad geometry as explained in the Modal
module.

Under Transient Thermal click “Initial Temperature” and set the value to 35C.

Click on “Analysis Settings” and set up the values as shown.

Right click Transient Thermal -> Insert -> Convection -> Select all the brake disc faces and set the values as shown.

Right click Transient Thermal -> Insert -> Heat ux -> Select the face as shown and enter the values

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 6/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Repeat this for the faces on the other side of the brake disc

Right click Solution -> Insert -> Thermal -> Temperature, parameterize and solve

Transfering geometry and model across analysis modules

Consider that you have performed a Static Structural Analysis, you can use the mesh created from this analysis to
perform another analysis, say a modal analysis. The followings steps show how this is done.

1. To copy the geometry to another analysis

2. Hold on the Modal module

1. Drag onto the tab of the Static Structural Module

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 7/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

1. The geometry is shared

This is generally performed when two di erent analyses are to be performed on the same geometry. You will have to
do the mesh again.

1. To share the mesh, boundary conditions setup and results

2. Hold on the Modal module

3. Drag on the Model or Solution tab of the Static Structural module

1. The mesh, setup and results are shared

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 8/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

This is generally performed when results from one analysis are to be shared with another analysis. For instance, these
steps can be used to perform pre-stressed modal analysis where results from static structural analysis are shared with
modal analysis.

NOTE: You have only these two options. There is no option to just share the mesh.

De ne input parameters

The input parameters are the design variables. To set these up, click on the Geometry tab of the static structural box.
Parametrize the outer diameter, inner diameter and thickness of the brake disc. Click on Sketch 1 as shown.

Select the dimensions as input parameters as shown in the gure by hitting the checkbox.

Background Knowledge for DOE and Optimization

Parameters: These include all available “nobs” for your design, e.g., geometry, topology, materials, and control
gains.

Variables: These are the subset of design parameters that you want to tune (so the rest of the parameters are
xed during the design). The set of all possible variable settings is called the design space.

Objectives: An objective de nes the goodness of a design. This is usually some performance of the design that
you care about (safety of a car, stability of a controller, etc.). In many cases, we are interested in designing for
more than one objective. However, to make things easier, our discussion will be focused on a single objective. We
will talked about how multiple objectives can be handled.
http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 9/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Constraints: These are functions of the design variables that de ne a feasible variable space. E.g., the design of a
bridge has to have a maximum stress less than the critical stress (times a safety factor).

NOTE: In ANSYS and some other software, the di erence between parameters and variables is not distinguished. So
when you see “parameters”, it might actually mean “variables”.

Optimization is the iterative process for nding a design that maximizes or minimizes the objective by searching the
design space. There are two major schools of optimization algorithms: gradient-based methods are useful when the
objective is di erentiable (in many mathematical and machine learning problems). They are fast but can only nd local
solutions; Gradient-free methods are useful when the evaluation of the objective (and its gradient) is expensive or when
the gradient is noisy. Ansys o ers both options.

DOE: Many engineering design problems have objectives that are evaluated through expensive
simulations/experiments, e.g., CFD analysis. In such cases, each function evaluation during the optimization takes a long
time, and thus could making the optimization intractable. DOE is a set of methodologies that determine which design to
evaluate from a potentially large design space, so that we can create a statistical model to predict the objective values
of other designs with low uncertainty in prediction. Through the predictive model, we can also tell the sensitivity of
variables, i.e., whether the objective changes much with respect to each of the variables. DOE is often used as part of
the gradient-free optimization algorithm.

Design of Experiments
DOE is used to e ectively sample a design space (e.g., all design parameters for the brake disc) so that a statistical
model can be built to predict responses (e.g., the maximum stress, or the rst natural frequency, or the maximum
temperature) of a given design. DOE is useful when one can only sample a limited number of points (i.e., run a limited
number of simulations). The key idea of DOE is to spread out’’ the samples so that the resultant statistical model has
low uncertainty in its model estimation and thus high accuracy in prediction.

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 10/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Step 1: De ne parameters and responses

To conduct DOE for a given model, we shall rst de ne the list of design variables and objectives that we care about (In
Ansys, these are called input and output parameters). To do so, open the “Project Schematic” window, which shall look
like this:

Step 2: Choose a Design Exploration method

In the Design Exploration window, nd “Response Surface”. This will allow us to perform DOE for the purpose of
creating a predictive model, called a response surface. Drag the “Response Surface” tab from the Toolbox on any one
dashed box near “Parameter Set”.

Step 3: Choose a DOE method

While ANSYS provides various DOE methods, we suggest Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) and Optimal space lling with
user de ned sample points. The main advantage of these methods is that the number of samples is independent from
the number of parameters. Another (more advanced) choice is sparse grid, which only samples a few points initially and
adaptively add new sample points based on the response surface. Kriging with auto-re nement has a similar e ect.
Note, we do not recommend Central Composite Design (CCD) because in many cases, the objective cannot be
approximated as a quadratic function, and CCD requires a large number of samples for relatively small number of
variables.

Click on the “Design of Experiments” option and select the required DOE and Design type:
http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 11/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial
Click on the Design of Experiments option and select the required DOE and Design type:

If you double click on the “Design of Experiments” tab, a new window opens where you see your input and output
parameters.

You can set the lower and upper bounds of each input parameter by clicking on that parameter.

After setting the input parameter bounds, hit “Preview” to see the list of DOE points according to your settings.

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 12/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Now hit “update” and brew your co ee. Depending on how many samples you requested, it will take hours to days for
DOE to nish.

NOTE: Some of your DOE samples may not be evaluated successfully due to signi cant change in geometry. In the
brake disk example, if the outer radius of the disk is changed to be smaller than the outer radius of the pads, the
friction contact setting will need to be reset manually due to mesh change. When this happens, it could indicate that
some of the designs sampled by DOE are not meaningful, e.g., having the brake pads partially cover the disk is not a
good design after all. It could also happen that you do want to evaluate these designs. To do so, rst manually x issues
due to parameter changes, and run the simulation(s) manually. You can then download the current DOE results, add in
these manually derived data, and upload the data table to ANSYS.

Step 4: Create a response surface

The DOE results can be used to create a response surface for prediction purpose. ANSYS provides the following list of
response surface methods:

Standard Response Surface: This method uses a polynomial surface to t the data. It requires the least amount
of computation in both tting and prediction. However, the performance of the prediction largely depend on the
choice of the polynomial bases. Use this method when you have lots of data and the change in objective is
smooth.

Kriging: This method is non-parametric, meaning that the prediction will depend on all existing data points. Thus
the method could be slow in prediction when you have a large amount data to t. It is also slow in tting the data
due to the calculation of pair-wise distances among data points. However, this method automatically ts through
all data points. Use this method when your data is highly nonlinear and limited, and you want your model
to t right through your data (i e you trust your simulation results)
http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 13/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial
to t right through your data (i.e., you trust your simulation results).

Non-parametric Regression: This method uses Support Vector Regression. It is similar to Kriging in that the
prediction depends on current data. But instead of using all data, this method chooses the most important data
points to perform prediction. Thus its computation cost for prediction is less than that of Kriging. Yet, its cost of
tting is still high. The model does not t through the data. Use this method when your data is highly
nonlinear, and you don’t need your model to t right through your data.

Neural Network: Feedforward neural network creates a nonlinear mapping from the input (a design) to the
output (its objective value) that mimics the expensive simulation. It is slow in training (and may end up with a
di erent model each time you train, even if the data is the same) when the network is deep, but the prediction
only involves simple matrix calculation and is fast. Use this method when your data is highly nonlinear but
you have lots of them, and you don’t need your model to t right through your data.

Sparse Grid: This method goes with the corresponding DOE method. It is similar to Kriging in that it handles highly
non-linear objectives. It does so by adaptively sampling in the most uncertain areas of the design space, and thus
may reduce the number of samples needed. Use this method when the objective is highly nonlinear and you
cannot a ord many simulations

To create a response surface, click on the “Response Surface” option in the Project Schematic window:

A new window opens. Choose the type of response surface you need. And then hit on the “Update” button.

Common issues in DOE and response surface

My model has a bad t, what shall I do?: There are two ways to improve the goodness of t: (1) increase the sample
size in DOE; and (2) increase the “complexity” of the response surface. To perform the latter, one can simply choose a
high-order polynomial model or a non-parametric model such as Kriging and Non-parametric Regression.

Wow, now my model has a perfect t, is that good?: The short answer is NO. While increasing the “complexity”
lowers the “training error”, i.e., the error between the model and the data used to train the model, it is not
recommended to use this method to push the goodness of t to the limit. In fact, with non-parametric models, it is
always possible to perfectly t through all data points (one can always connect all dots manually). But by doing this, we
may very likely over t the model, so that it actually has worse prediction performance than a model with higher
training error. To summarize the theory behind this, A model has better prediction performance when: the training
error is low, and the model complexity is also low. Note that this is essentially what Occam’s Razor says.

So how can we determine which model is the best? A common practice is to use a judge, or called veri cation
points. The idea is to set some data we collected aside, and never use them for training the model, but only use them
for calculating the error, which is called the validation error. The rationale is that if the model can t well with these data
without using them for training, then it has good predictability.

To perform veri cation in Ansys, click on the “Response Surface” as shown in the gure below. Check “Generate
Veri cation Points” and enter the number of veri cation points. There is not really a rule on how many veri cation
points you should use, but 1/4 or 1/3 of your total sample size is practically reasonable.

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 14/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

What if my veri cation result is bad? This can commonly happen if (1) your sample size is small, or (2) the underlying
response is highly nonlinear, or (3) the choice of response surface is too exible (e.g., Kriging), thus causing over t. To
address this issue, you can (1) increase the sample size, (2) try a di erent model. Note that in ANSYS, you can include
the ver cation points as re nement points, which will lead to better goodness of t. To do so, right click on the
veri cation point. One shall then increase the number of veri cation points in the response surface setting before
updating the response surface (or otherwise all points are used for tting the response surface, leading to over tting
again).

When shall I stop re nement? If the goal of creating the response surface is solely to use the surface for predicting
responses, then one shall make sure that with enough veri cation points, the error in prediction is limited. ANSYS
provides a three-star rating on the goodness of t of the response surface for veri cation points for this purpose.

If the goal is to perform optimization, an accurate response surface is not necessary. Therefore with a relatively
accurate surface model, one can move on to the optimization. Since the optimization is performed based on the
response surface rather than the true simulations, a discrepancy may exist between the predicted and the true
responses. ANSYS reports both numbers for the set of near-optimal solutions it nds. If the discrepancy is signi cant,
one shall set these solutions as re nement points of the response surface, and run optimization again upon the re ned
surface. A smarter approach is the Bayesian Optimization algorithm. For interested readers, see this review of BO.

** What is veri cation and validation?**: “Validation” is often referred to as testing a design in reality (with experiments)
while “veri cation” means testing the design with simulations.

Sensitivity Analysis
Building the response surface also allows us to perform sensitivity analysis, i.e., to see how much the objective changes
when each variable changes. When a large number of variables exist, sensitivity analysis allows us to gure out the
most important variables to design for, and thus reduce the computational cost of the optimization.

To perform sensitivity analysis, go to the “Response Surface” tab. The options for the sensitivity analysis are as shown in
the gure below.

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 15/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

Here, “Local Sensitivity” shows the norm of the partial derivatives of the chosen objective with respect to the selected
variables:

“Local Sensitivity Curves” shows the response curve of the chosen objective (Y-axis) with respect to the selected
variables (X-axis):

Optimization

Single-objective vs. Multi-objective

There is rarely a design case where we only want to optimize a single response. In the running example, a set of
objectives are listed. However, nding a Utopian design that simultaneously optimizes all objectives is unachievable in
reality. This is because for a reasonable problem setting, there always exist con icts among objectives. There are two
solutions to this: (1) One can set one of the objectives as the objective in ANSYS, and the rest as constraints. By
changing the constraints, one can derive a sequence of optimal solutions. This set of solutions is call Pareto Optimal,
and a surface spanned in the space of objectives tting through these solutions is call the Pareto frontier. For cases
with two (three) objectives, it is called the Pareto curve (Pareto surface). Deriving the Pareto frontier is often more
valuable than obtaining a single optimal solution, since the former reveals quantitatively how con icting objectives
trade o for the design problem of interest. % need a gure here.

Optimization algorithms
http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 16/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial
Optimization algorithms

ANSYS provides a list of optimization algorithms:

Screening: Randomly sampling the space and pick out the good ones. Use this as an initial trial to make sure
everything is setup correctly, e.g., does your simulation give reasonable results?

Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA): Simultaneously nd Pareto-optimal designs. Use this when you have
multiple objectives. This is not the only choice for this situation though, see discussion above.

Nonlinear Programming by Quadratic Lagrangian (NLPQL): Fast local search. Use this when (1) there is only
one objective (but you can set other objectives as constraints), (2) the simulation does not take too long (in
minutes), (3) the number of variables is small (less than 10).

Mixed-Integer Sequential Quadratic Programming (MISQP): Similar to NLPQL, but allows integer variables.
Note that the addition of integer variables will often signi cantly increase the computation time.

Adaptive Single-Objective Optimization (ASO): This method uses Optimal Space Filling for DOE, Kriging as a
response surface, and MISQP for nding local optimal solutions from the response surface. Use this when the
evaluation of objective/constriants are expensive and you have limited budget/time for optimization.

Adaptive Multi-Objective Optimization (AMO): Similar to ASO, this one uses Kriging and MOGA.

Things to check during your analysis and optimization

What are the potential trade-o s between your objectives?

Are your variables continuous? Or are they discrete/integer?

Do you have analytical objective/constraint functions? And are they di erentiable?

Based on the above answers, what optimization methods will you choose?

Perform a sensitivity analysis and comment on the importance of your variables? Also, do you observe
monotonicity (i.e., the objective always goes up or down with a variable)?

Compare your optimal design against the initial one (e.g., see the following comparison on the brake disc design)
AND comment on whether the optimal design is reasonable.

Design Informatics Lab | School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, Arizona State University (2018)

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 17/18
4/24/2018 Analytics - ANSYS DOE and Design Optimization Tutorial

http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2016/11/20/ansys.html#structural 18/18