Dominance among constraints exists when the satisfaction of a constraint guarantees the satisfaction of another, rendering the second constraint irrelevant. Identifying dominance not only facilitates numerical solution but may also focus the designer's attention on critical aspects of the design. A number of dominance identification methods have been described in the literature, including the Constraint Difference Method, the Constraint Transformation Method, and the Necessary-Sufficient Interval Method. We elaborate on the basis for and the character of these methods and we discuss relative similarities, differences, strengths, and weaknesses of the methods. We also discuss computational issues relevant to the application of these methods, most specifically function range determination and interval analysis issues. We observe that the differences among the methods lead to advantages for each method in circumstances that depend on the nature of the constraints and the extent of the design space. These distinct advantages suggest a synergism among the methods in the identification of constraint dominance in complex design problems.
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