Experimental design responses

In this chapter the use of statistical experimental designs in designing products and processes to be robust to environmental conditions has been considered. The focus has been on two classes of experimental design, response surface designs and split-plot designs. 

DEMING, S. N. Experimental designs response surfaces, in Chemometrics, mathematics and statistics in chemistry. KOWALSKI, B. R. (ed.), Dordrecht, Reidel, 1981. 

A one-factor-at-a-time optimization is consistent with a commonly held belief that to determine the influence of one factor it is necessary to hold constant all other factors. This is an effective, although not necessarily an efficient, experimental design when the factors are independent. Two factors are considered independent when changing the level of one factor does not influence the effect of changing the other factor s level. Table 14.1 provides an example of two independent factors. When factor B is held at level Bi, changing factor A from level Ai to level A2 increases the response from 40 to 80 thus, the change in response, AR, is... 

To develop an empirical model for a response surface, it is necessary to collect the right data using an appropriate experimental design. Two popular experimental designs are considered in the following sections. 

Note These equations are from Doming, S. N. Morgan, S. L. Experimental Design A Chemometric Approach. Elsevier Amsterdam, 1987, and pseudo-three-dimensional plots of the response surfaces can be found in their figures 11.4, 11.5, and 11.14. The response surface for problem (a) also is shown in Color Plate 13. 

Using experimental design such as Surface Response Method optimises the product formulation. This method is more satisfactory and effective than other methods such as classical one-at-a-time or mathematical methods because it can study many variables simultaneously with a low number of observations, saving time and costs [6]. Hence in this research, statistical experimental design or mixture design is used in this work in order to optimise the MUF resin formulation. 

Because of the emphasis on experimental design. It Is required that a statistician serve as a member of the design team The assigned tasks and responsibilities for the statistician differ from those for the scientists The primary mechanism for obtaining the experimental design Is to require each scientist on the team to make explicit, documented, numerical predictions for all combinations of the test conditions specified In a factorial table In effect, such predictions require each scientist to quantify the effects of the experimental factors (control variables) on the dependent variable These predictions are based on the scientist s knowledge and assessment of related literature, data, experience, etc Candidate team members who are unable or unwilling to make such predictions are excluded from the team ... 

The experimental designs discussed in Chapters 24-26 for optimization can be used also for finding the product composition or processing condition that is optimal in terms of sensory properties. In particular, central composite designs and mixture designs are much used. The analysis of the sensory response is usually in the form of a fully quadratic function of the experimental factors. The sensory response itself may be the mean score of a panel of trained panellists. One may consider such a trained panel as a sensitive instrument to measure the perceived intensity useful in describing the sensory characteristics of a food product. 

Buzzi-Ferraris, G., P. Forzatti, G. Emig and H. Hofmann, "Sequential Experimental Design for Model Discrimination in the Case of Multiple Responses", Chem. Eng. Sci., 39(1), 81-85 (1984). 

Procedures on how to make inferences on the parameters and the response variables are introduced in Chapter 11. The design of experiments has a direct impact on the quality of the estimated parameters and is presented in Chapter 12. The emphasis is on sequential experimental design for parameter estimation and for model discrimination. Recursive least squares estimation, used for on-line data analysis, is briefly covered in Chapter 13. 

A more subjective approach to the multiresponse optimization of conventional experimental designs was outlined by Derringer and Suich (22). This sequential generation technique weights the responses by means of desirability factors to reduce the multivariate problem to a univariate one which could then be solved by iterative optimization techniques. The use of desirability factors permits the formulator to input the range of property values considered acceptable for each response. The optimization procedure then attempts to determine an optimal point within the acceptable limits of all responses. 

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