7.1 Conclusion

In this project a new methodology has been arrived to efficiently use the Taguchi method and the finite element method as a design tool. As an experimental method, the Taguchi method is one of the best statistical tools. Similarly, the finite element analysis is a powerful numerical tool to solve most of the common engineering problems governed by differential equations. The major advantage of using finite element analysis is that the method is not problem specific and can be used for generic cases.

The concept has been implemented using the Generic Blackboard Builder (GBB) development environment system. The results of the optimization using both methods confirms the reduction of computational time.

7.2 Further Scope

The above concept can be extended to many other areas where the real time experiment can be replaced by a computer simulated experiment.

In order to make the software more versatile, the effect of interaction between the independent design variables shall be incorporated.

At present the software can read only ANSYS parametric files. However, the software can be extended to read many other file formats of the commercially available finite element softwares which permits parametric programming.

Finally, the optimization of the design shall be explored further to achieve the local/ global optimization using the integrated approach. From the results of near optimal solutions, a new experiment could be conducted by narrowing the range of design variable limits. However, care shall be taken to minimize the total number of experiments which may otherwise be much more than the conventional optimization technique.