| Abstract: | A computer program that performs ridge analysis on quadratic response surfaces is presented in this paper, the primary goal of which is to seek the estimated optimum operating conditions inside a spherical region of experimentation during the stage of process optimization. The computational algorithm is developed based upon the trust-region methods in nonlinear optimization and guarantees the resulting operating conditions to be globally optimal without any priori assumption on the structure of response functions. Under a particular condition termed the "hard case" arising from the trust region literature, the conventional ridge analysis procedure fails to provide a set of acceptable optimum operating settings, yet the proposed algorithm has the capability of locating a pair of non-unique global solutions achieved on an identical estimated response value. Two illustrative examples taken from the response surface methodology (RSM) literature are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the method addressed in the paper. |
