Screening designs based on weighing matrices with added two-level categorical factors

Abstract

Screening designs are used widely in industrial experimentation. They are used to identify factors with the most potential among a large number of factors. In a recent article, Jones and Nachtsheim proposed a new class of designs called definitive screening designs (DSDs), and they later showed how a few categorical factors could be introduced in those designs. In this article, we provide a new general method that can use weighing matrices to construct screening designs with some two-level qualitative factors. The methodology is illustrated through a number of small examples. The generated designs are compared to the designs in the literature and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.

Keywords:

• conference matrices
• correlation
• definitive screening designs
• second-order model

About the authors

Mr. Marwan H. Alhelali is a PhD student at the School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Stelios D. Georgiou is a senior lecturer at the School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Stella Stylianou is a senior lecturer at the School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

Funding

M. H. Alhelali thanks the University of Tabuk in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for financially supporting his research.