Emulator technology in engineering design

Emulator technology is the methodology that replaces simulators in engineer ing design by surrogate models, sometimes called meta-models. The methodolo gy has three distinct stages: data capture, modelling and optimization. Spa ce-filling experimental designs are used to gather information; then specia lized adaptive models, derived from statistical principles, are used to emu late the system. The advantage of emulators is that they run many times fas ter than the simulators, which means they can be used in multi-domain envir onments for multi-objective optimization. This is generally not possible us ing the simulators themselves due to the computational burden. Emulator tec hnology should be considered as part of the general data-capture and modell ing environment within industry.