Setting Up the Inputs for the Study

In Design Manager, inputs are parameters that you define in the reference simulation that Design Manager can vary for design exploration studies.

For this tutorial, you allow Design Manager to modify the values of 3D-CAD design parameters. These design parameters are inputs for Design Manager and have a range of acceptable values, where you specify the maximum and minimum values that can be explored.
  1. Right-click the Design Studies node and select New.
  2. Rename the Design Study node to Optimization.
  3. Select the Optimization study node.
    Information about the study, including the type of study and the location of the reference simulation, are displayed in the Properties window.
  4. In the Properties window, set Study Type to Optimization.
    The icon of the study changes to to reflect the type of study performed.
  5. Set the optimization settings:
    1. Select the Optimization > Optimization Settings node.
    2. Set Optimization Type to Multiple Objective Tradeoff (Pareto).
      This optimization type allows for multiple competing objectives. In this tutorial, you want to make the mixture as homogeneous as possible while minimizing the pressure drop across the pipe.
    3. Set Designs to Run to 48.

      The recommended number of runs is 8 to 12 times the Archive Size (the number of designs that run in a single cycle of an optimization study). For this tutorial, the Archive Size is 12 , making the recommended number of runs somewhere between of 96 and 144. To reduce the time it takes to complete this tutorial, you set this value to half of the recommended number of runs.

    4. Select the Optimization > Optimization Settings > Archive Size node and make sure Number of Designs is set to 12.
      This number must be divisible by four and greater than or equal to 12, and greater than or equal to the number of variables in the study.
  6. Expand the Simulations > staticMixer_reference.sim node.
    All the objects that are nested under this node can be used as inputs and outputs by Design Manager.
  7. Define the input parameters for the study:
    1. Select the Design Studies > Optimization > Input Parameters node and click the property customizer () for Parameters.
    2. In the Input Parameters - Parameters dialog, select all parameters and click OK.
      All design parameters from 3D-CAD are added to the study.
    3. Right-click the Optimization > Input Parameters node, select Edit..., and set the following parameters:
      Name Type Baseline Value Range Resolution
      FinAngle Continuous 45 deg [25.0, 65.0] deg 101
      FinDepth Continuous 0.5 m [0.2, 0.75] m 101
      FinLength Continuous 1.0 m [0.5, 1.5] m 101
      FinWidth Continuous 0.02 m [0.02, 0.2] m 101
      For each input parameters, the Baseline Value defines the values that Design Manager uses for the first design. The Range defines the upper and lower limit that Design Manager can use during the optimization. The Resolution defines the maximum number of designs to explore.
    4. In the Optimization - Input Parameters dialog, set Type for the NumFins parameter to Discrete.
      As the number of fins can only be integers, you specify the exact values that Design Manager can use while modifying this parameter.
    5. Under Values, enter [3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0].
      You want Design Manager to look at designs containing 3 to 6 fins.
    6. Make sure that Baseline Value for NumFins is set to 4.
    7. Click Close to close the Optimization - Input Parameters dialog.