RESPONSE SURFACE MODEL DEVELOPMENT FOR GLOBAL/LOCAL OPTIMIZATION USING RADIAL BASIS FUNCTIONS*

This paper considers the optimization of complex multi-parameter systems in which the objective function is not known explicitly, and can only be evaluated either through costly physical experiments or through computationally intensive numerical simulation. Furthermore, the objective function of interest may contain many local extrema. Given a data set consisting of the value of the objective function at a scattered set of parameter values, we are interested in developing a response surface model to reduce dramatically the required computation time for parameter optimization runs.To accomplish these tasks, a response surface model is developed using radial basis functions. Radial basis functions provide a way of creating a model whose objective function values match those of the original system at all sampled data points. Interpolation to any other point is easily accomplished and generates a model which represents the system over the entire parameter space. This paper presents the details of the use