A Contour Plotting Scheme for Design Optimization

Abstract

A procedure is developed for drawing contours of an objective function and constraints in two dimensions. Polynomial expressions are first obtained for the design objective and the constraints. Then a non-parametric curve generation technique is used to draw approximate contours. By superimposing the constraints on the contour plots the feasible design region is readily identified, and the 2-D minimum can be located by inspection. Contours are obtained for some typical applications to illustrate the effectiveness of the method. Problems with more than two design variables can be approached by considering various 2-D views of the design space.