TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– To survey the approaches to design optimization based on possibility theory and evidence theory comparatively, as well as their prominent characteristics mainly for epistemic uncertainty.Design/methodology/approach– Owing to uncertainties encountered in engineering design problems and limitations of the conventional probabilistic approach in handling the impreciseness of data or knowledge, the possibility‐based design optimization (PBDO), evidence‐based design optimization (EBDO) and their integrated approaches are investigated from the viewpoints of computational development and performance improvement. After that, this paper discusses the fusion technologies and an example of integrated approach in reliability to reveal the qualitative value and efficiency.Findings– It is recognized that more conservative results are obtained with both PBDO and EBDO, which may be appropriate for design against catastrophic failure compared with the probability‐based design. Furthermore, the EBDO design may be less conservative compared with the PBDO design.Research limitations/implications– How to perfect already‐existing integration approaches in a more generally analytical framework is still an active domain of research.Practical implications– The paper is a holistic reference for design engineers and industry managers.Originality/value– The paper is focused on decomposition strategies and fusion technologies, especially addressing epistemic uncertainty for large‐scale and complex systems when statistical data are scarce or incomplete.
VL  - 37
IS  - 9/10
SN  - 0368-492X
DO  - 10.1108/03684920810907616
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920810907616
AU  - He Li‐Ping
AU  - Qu Fu‐Zheng
ED  - Mian‐yun Chen
ED  - Yi Lin
ED  - Hejing Xiong
PY  - 2008
Y1  - 2008/01/01
TI  - Possibility and evidence theory‐based design optimization: an overview
T2  - Kybernetes
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 1322
EP  - 1330
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -