An integrated approach to automated innovization for discovering useful design principles: Case studies from engineering. Applied Soft Computing AbstractComputational optimization methods are most often used to find a single or multiple optimal or near-optimal solutions to the underlying optimization problem describing the problem at hand. In this paper, we elevate the use of optimization to a higher level in arriving at useful problem knowledge associated with the optimal or near-optimal solutions to a problem. In the proposed innovization process, first a set of trade-off optimal or near-optimal solutions are found using an evolutionary algorithm. Thereafter, the tradeoff solutions are analyzed to decipher useful relationships among problem entities automatically so as to provide a better understanding of the problem to a designer or a practitioner. We provide an integrated algorithm for the innovization process and demonstrate the usefulness of the procedure to three real-world engineering design problems. New and innovative design principles obtained in each case should clearly motivate engineers and practitioners for its further application to more complex problems and its further development as a more efficient data analysis procedure.

This paper shows a method to compute the chord and twist distributions in wind power blades. The distributions are computed to maximize the mean expected power depending on the Weibull wind distribution at a specific site. This approach avoids assumptions about optimal attack angle related to the ratio between the lift to drag coefficients. To optimize chord and twist distributions, an efficient implementation of the Blade-Element and Momentum theory is used. In the implementation, the sophistication is dismiss to reduce computational cost. The time required to evaluate the forces in a typical turbine is in the order of milliseconds, which allows massive evaluation of trial turbines. The implementation is validated by comparing power prediction with the experimental data of the Risø test turbine. High quality in results is obtained until the stall zone, about wind speed of 13m/s proximately. Predictions are used to compute the mean power that is used as the fitness function in a genetic algorithm. An application is presented to optimize the blade of this test turbine for a specified wind distribution.

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These studies have shown that 2,4-D is rapidly degraded in forest litter and that the rate of degradation varies with the type of litter, herbicide formulation and the presence of DDT. The degradation of 2,4-D varies slightly in litter from different vegetation types when incubated under similar environmental conditions. Greater variation in herbicide degradation rates may be expected in the field; but this will be due primarily to differences in the site microenvironment, rather than inherent differences in the litter.Various formulations of 2,4-D are degraded at different rates in forest litter although we believe this to be more a function of constituents of formulation than a direct effect of the technical acid, salt or ester.Finally, these experiments have shown that up to 4 gallons per acre of diesel oil has little or no effect on the decomposition of 2,4-D isooctyl ester, while 1 lb./A. of DDT appears to stimulate herbicide degradation.