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Engineering Optimization
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Application of glyph-based techniques

for multivariate engineering
visualization
a

Vladimir Glazar , Gordana Marunic , Marko Percic & Zlatko

b

Butkovic
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering Design, Faculty of

Engineering, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
b

Click for updates

Graduate University Study Programme of Mechanical

Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka, Rijeka,
Croatia
Published online: 06 Jan 2015.

To cite this article: Vladimir Glazar, Gordana Marunic, Marko Percic & Zlatko Butkovic (2015):
Application of glyph-based techniques for multivariate engineering visualization, Engineering
Optimization, DOI: 10.1080/0305215X.2014.994866
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305215X.2014.994866

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Engineering Optimization, 2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305215X.2014.994866

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Application of glyph-based techniques for multivariate

engineering visualization
Downloaded by [CARNet], [Vladimir Glazar] at 00:02 12 January 2015

Vladimir Glazara , Gordana Marunica , Marko Percica and Zlatko Butkovicb

a Department of Mechanical Engineering Design, Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka, Rijeka,
Croatia; b Graduate University Study Programme of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,

University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

(Received 13 February 2014; accepted 28 October 2014)
This article presents a review of glyph-based techniques for engineering visualization as well as practical application for the multivariate visualization process. Two glyph techniques, Chernoff faces and star
glyphs, uncommonly used in engineering practice, are described, applied to the selected data set, run
through the chosen optimization methods and user evaluated. As an example of how these techniques
function, a set of data for the optimization of a heat exchanger with a microchannel coil is adopted for
visualization. The results acquired by the chosen visualization techniques are related to the results of optimization carried out by the response surface method and compared with the results of user evaluation.
Based on the data set from engineering research and practice, the advantages and disadvantages of these
techniques for engineering visualization are identified and discussed.
Keywords: glyphs; Chernoff faces; star glyphs; heat transfer; optimization

1.

Introduction

The term visualization has numerous meanings and definitions, which can cause a loss of focus
and some confusion. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2013), the verb visualize
means to form a mental image of something or to make (something) visible to the eye. Modern
definitions of visualization involve the tools or methods of data interpretation. Wright (2007)
states that, visualization as a human activity predates computing by hundreds of years, possibly
thousands if we include cave paintings as examples of Mans attempts to convey mental imagery
to his fellows. Earnshaw (1992) defined the term scientific visualization as follows: Scientific
visualization is concerned with exploring data and information in such a way as to gain understanding and insight into the data. To achieve this goal, this interdisciplinary branch of science
embraces the areas of computer graphics, user-interface methodology, image processing, system
design and signal processing (Aref, Charles, and Elvins 1994). This discipline was referred to by
a report for the US National Scientific Foundation (McCormick, De Fanti, and Brown 1987).
Among a growing number of published articles with the keyword visualization there can be
found valuable review articles. Ropinski, Oeltze, and Preim (2011) conducted a survey of glyphbased visualization techniques. Although the focus of this investigation was on medical data, the
*Corresponding author. Email: vglazar@riteh.hr
2015 Taylor & Francis

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V. Glazar et al.

taxonomy of glyph properties, followed by guidelines to improve glyph-based visualization, can

be applied without reference to data type. Six proposed guidelines have been derived from the
best medical practice and they reflect the current state of the art. Edmunds et al. (2012) present
an up-to-date overview of the surface-based flow visualization that highlights the solved and
unsolved problems in the visualization of three-dimensional (3D) flow. While two-dimensional
(2D) flow obtains a lot of good solutions, the visualization of 3D flow is affected by issues such
as domain coverage, perception and speed of computation. A scene-graph based visualization
method that can verify time-varying continuous analysis simulation in a virtual reality environment using the computer-aided engineering data of structural analysis in product development
was proposed by Song and Yang (2011). They used the visualization system for manipulation
with an OpenSG scene graph to translate and represent continuous simulation data consisting of
a sequence of time-step scenes and analysis data.
This article focuses on the practical application of glyph-based techniques in a multivariate engineering visualization process, which involves a number of independent mathematical or
statistical variables. Two glyph techniques that are uncommonly used in engineering practice,
namely Chernoff faces and star glyphs, are assessed. Chernoff faces are simplified, cartoonlike faces that can be used to graphically display complex multivariate data (Chernoff 1973),
while the star glyph is a multivariate graphing technique in which each variable is represented
by a ray that extends out of a common origin, with equal angular distances between the rays
(Chambers et al. 1983). Kindlmann (2004) reported the results and experience gained in the
investigation of diffusion tensor glyph visualization. Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) is a method used to non-invasively reveal abnormalities in the white matter fibre
structure and to provide models of brain connectivity. By carefully distributing glyphs throughout
the field, using potential energy profiles shaped by the local tensor value, the underlying continuous features became more apparent. Kindlmann (2004) demonstrated the improved method on
a DT-MRI scan. The same author proposed new glyphs and demonstrated them on the fields
of diffusion tensors from the human brain (Kindlmann and Westin 2006). Likewise, Rusu et
al. (2009) proposed enhanced star glyphs for multiple-source data analysis. Their techniques
included clustering, using the colour as identifiers and 3D graphing capabilities to present more
data that otherwise might not have been shown in a 2D environment. They applied these techniques to compare several air traffic trajectory predictors currently being analysed by the US
Federal Aviation Administration.
The considered techniques are well known but scarcely applied to engineering. The data
used for visualization in this article were acquired from experimental and numerical analysis
of heat transfer and fluid flow in compact heat exchangers. A detailed mathematical approach
and detailed description of the experimental apparatus can be found in several articles (Glazar,
Frankovic, and Trp 2014; Glazar, Trp, and Lenic 2012). The acquired investigation results have
been partly related to the results of optimization carried out by the response surface method
(Kanaris, Mouza, and Paras 2009).

2.

Glyph-based visualization

According to a simple definition, a glyph is an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. The word glyph comes from Greek glyphe, which
means to carve, and glyphein, to engrave. In science, a glyph is generally a graphical object that
represents data values at a point in space. An example of glyph application in engineering is a
model with arrows, where the arrow orientation represents the air flow and the length of the arrow
its magnitude. As another example, to visualize complex molecular structures, chemists may use

Engineering Optimization

coloured balls to represent individual atoms in the molecule and sticks of different length the
connections between the atoms. Glyphs are widely used in data visualization and are suitable for
displaying all kind of multivariate data sets as they translate data using different attributes, such
as size, colour, position and shape.

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2.1.

Chernoff faces

Herman Chernoff, mathematician, physicist and statistician, who is currently a professor emeritus at Harvard, first used faces to represent points in n-dimensional space graphically (Chernoff
1973). Later, his invention was appreciated by others and named after him as the technique of
Chernoff faces.
Put simply, Chernoff faces are 2D glyphs that allow the display of multivariate data in the form
of a human face. Some face parts, such as eyes, ears, mouth and nose, are the values of variables
according to their shape, size, position and orientation. The idea of using the face was developed
so that people could easily recognize and notice small changes in the data visualized without
difficulty and confusion. Since some facial features can be easily distinguished from others, it is
very important that the variables are carefully selected. An example of a Chernoff face is shown
in Figure 1.
This technique enables the presentation of several variables on a 2D surface. Different variables can be attached to the selected facial properties, such as eye spacing, head eccentricity,
eye size, nose size, mouth curvature, mouth width, mouth openness, nose width, pupil size, eye
eccentricity and eyebrow slope (Gonick and Smith 1993).
Among numerous applications of this method, a well-known one is the display of life quality
in certain parts of Los Angeles (Zhou and Spinelli 2004). The authors defined the faces in such
a way that the colour of the face was determined by the percentage of white population, the size
of the eyes represented the urban stress level, the mouth gesture reflected the unemployment rate
(smiling, serious or sad) and the head shape was determined by the affluence of people in that
part of the city.
Although Chernoff faces are discussed and referenced on every information/data visualization
course, some argument about their usability can be found among scientific articles (Kosara 2007).
According to Kosara et al. (2008),
criticism is a vital part of the practice of design, architecture, and art, and as such, is taught and practiced around
the world. As visualization is in many aspects similar to design and art, criticism isnt a bad thing, it should be
appreciated as a valuable tool for pointing out and learning from mistakes.

The motivation for using this approach in this article, and in general, is taken along with the
statement that humans are excellent at recognizing faces and noticing small changes in them
(Song, Zhao, and Wang 2010).

Figure 1.

Chernoff faces technique.

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V. Glazar et al.

Figure 2.

2.2.

(a) Main star glyph; (b) star glyph with spheres; and (c) clustered star glyph.

Star-based glyphs

The star glyph is a graphical multivariate technique in which each variable is shown as a ray.
Each ray is associated with a common origin and the angle between the rays is the same. The
length of ray is proportional to the value of a certain variable (Chambers et al. 1983).
The main star glyph, sometimes called a basic star glyph, has two dimensions: the categorical
value is represented by different spokes and the quantifiable value by their length. Figure 2(a)
shows the main star glyph. With the addition of another attribute axis, data can be visualized
as shown in Figure 2(b), where the radius of each sphere represents a proportional value of an
additional attribute. More data can be added to the same star glyph by using differently coloured
spheres. Star glyphs are very effective in the determination of unsuitable members of a group.
However, problems occur when the data set becomes too large and the graph thus becomes too
cluttered to be useful, as shown in Figure 2(c).
In this article, multiple star glyphs have been used, allowing the comparison of multivariate
results from several different geometries.

3.

Background of data sets adopted for the visualization

All data used in this article were acquired from the experimental and numerical analysis of heat
transfer and fluid flow in compact heat exchangers (Glazar 2011). The working media temperatures, mass flow rates and pressure drops for two heat exchangers with a microchannel coil
were measured in an open-circuit wind tunnel. In accordance with the heat exchangers used
for the experiments, numerical 3D models of adequate geometry were developed. Good agreement between the experimental and numerical results was attained. A short description of the
background to the data follows.
3.1.

Experimental set-up

Figure 3 is a schematic representation of the wind tunnel available at the Faculty of Engineering,
University of Rijeka, Croatia, with the provision to supply high-pressure air to the test unit at
ambient temperatures.
The wind tunnel was used to measure the working media temperatures and mass flow rates
of two heat exchangers with a microchannel coil. Air and distilled water were used as working
fluids. The main components of the system were heat exchangers with a microchannel coil, water

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Engineering Optimization

Figure 3.

Schematic representation of the wind tunnel test apparatus.

flow loops, air supply unit, instrumentation and data acquisition systems. The open-circuit wind
tunnel system was used to suck the air from the laboratory or from the open air over the air
handling unit, with the capability of preheating the air. The National Instruments SCXI data
acquisition, automation and control module system was used. A National Instruments DAQCard was used to connect the system to a personal computer (PC). All virtual instruments were
developed in LabView, which was installed on a PC.
During the experiments, the mass flow rate m
w (kg h1 ) of the water was varied from 200 to
1
2000 kg h using the flow control valve and high-efficiency smart pump. The air velocity va (m
s1 ) in the ducts was varied from 1 to 6 m s1 by adjusting the damper positions using a lever
mechanism. The temperature of water at the inlet and outlet T w,in , T w,out (K), the inlet and outlet
temperatures of air T a,in , T a,out (K), and the pressure drop across the air and water sides pa ,
pw (Pa) were measured for different flow rates.
3.2.

Heat exchanger with microchannel coil

The microchannel coil used in this article consists of 68 parallel flat tubes connected with
wavy fins. Flat tubes were made of 18 rectangular channels, each with a hydraulic diameter
of d h = 0.99 mm. The fin pitch value is F p = 1.45 mm and the fin thickness F t = 0.1 mm. The
tested heat exchanger with a microchannel coil is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Front view of the microchannel coil used in the experiments.

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V. Glazar et al.

Figure 5.

3.3.

Schematic view of the computational domain.

Mathematical and numerical approach

The air/water model (Borrajo-Pealez, Ortega-Casanova, and Cejudo-Lopez 2010) was used.
Owing to limitations of the computer resources, only the portion of the heat exchanger able
to describe the flows of air and water was taken into account. Two planes of symmetry were
assumed in the z-direction, perpendicular to the fin surface so that the flat tubes were divided
into two identical parts. A schematic view of the computational domain is shown in Figure 5.
In Figure 5, the upstream and downstream regions have not been presented in proportional
dimensions. The computational domain consists of six volume groups: the air upstream region
(1), the internal airspace (2), the air downstream region (3), fins (4), the water region (5) and
the two halves of flat tubes (6). The total length of the computational domain has been extended
nine times from the actual internal airspace. The upstream region has been extended two-and-ahalf times to ensure inlet uniformity and the downstream region has been extended six times to
prevent flow recirculation.
The results acquired by the numerical model were compared in the same ranges of air
and water temperature and velocities used in the experimental investigation. A good agreement between the results was obtained for more than 100 measurements and can be seen in
Glazar (2011).

4.

Prescribed data set

Compact heat exchanger geometry optimization was carried out for the doctoral thesis (Glazar
2011). Multivariate optimization included three geometric parameters that have been shown to
influence the hydrodynamic behaviour of the system. These geometric parameters are shown in
Figure 6: the distance between flat tubes Pt , the fin pitch F p and the number of small rectangular
channels nsc .
In addition, one operating condition expressed by the water inlet velocity vw,in (m s1 ) was
included in the multivariate analysis and optimization, making a total of four independent
variables for this design.

5.

Optimization method

For design problems that involve computation-intensive analysis or simulation processes,

approximation models are usually introduced to reduce the computation time. Wang, Dong, and

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Engineering Optimization

Figure 6.

Schematic view of the tested heat exchanger with microchannel coil.

Aitchison (2001) presented the adaptive response surface method, which they tested successfully.
A detailed description of the method was followed by a discussion on the advantages and limitations of the newly developed method. Response surface-based design optimization has been also
commonly been used for optimizing large-scale design problems in the automotive industry (Shi,
Yang, and Zhu 2013). The authors created and presented an efficient response surface strategy,
which minimizes the number of computationally intensive simulations.
The applied response surface method includes the collection of techniques (i.e. design of
experiments, regression analysis and analysis of variance) that allow the designer to extract
as much information as possible from a limited number of test cases. A four-level full factorial design would require 81 design points, compared to the 27 design points required by the
BoxBehnken method (Box and Behnken 1960; Kanaris, Mouza, and Paras 2009).
For the purposes of this article, a set of 15 design points of a heat exchanger with a
microchannel coil was filtered and prescribed (Table 1).
The previously experimentally validated numerical model was used to predict the heat transfer
rate Qhe (W) and pressure drops of air pa and water pw in this type of equipment (Table 2).
Several objective functions have been developed and employed as an optimization procedure
using the response surface method. The developed objective functions f 1 f 5 are subjected to the
results from the air and water pressure drops pw and pa , the heat transfer rate Qhe and the
Table 1.

Set of prescribed design points.

No.

x1
Pt (mm)

x2
F p (mm)

x3
nsc (/)

x4
vw,in (m/s)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

15
10
5
15
5
5
10
10
10
15
15
10
10
5
10

2
1.5
2
1.5
1.5
1
2
1
1.5
1
1.5
1.5
2
1.5
1

25
25
25
30
30
25
30
20
25
25
20
25
20
20
30

0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8

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V. Glazar et al.
Table 2.
drops.

Numerically determined heat transfer rate and pressure

No.

pw (Pa)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

241
241
241
233
233
241
233
224
241
241
225
241
225
225
233

pa (Pa)
6
11
11
10
17
29
7
19
11
19
8
11
7
15
25

Qhe (W)

mhe (kg)

1875
2524
2077
2590
2812
3391
2070
3391
2524
3359
2336
2577
1846
2486
3466

0.18
0.25
0.35
0.23
0.42
0.42
0.25
0.27
0.25
0.27
0.18
0.25
0.20
0.33
0.34

mass of the heat exchanger mhe (kg). In functions f 2 f 5 parameter values are compared to the
appropriated values acquired for the referent heat exchanger Qhe,ref , pw,ref , pa,ref and mhe,ref .
The referent heat exchanger is defined by the prescribed design points for case no. 2, shown in
Table 1.
Objective function f 1 combines the heat transfer rate and the weight of heat exchanger:
f1 (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) =

Qhe
mhe

(1)

Objective function f 2 linearly combines the heat transfer rate with the pressure drop of air,
using a weighting factor g1 = 0.9:
f2 (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = g1

Qhe
pa,ref
+ (1 g1 )
Qhe,ref
pa

(2)

Objective function f 3 linearly combines the heat transfer rate with the pressure drop of water,
using a weighting factor g2 = 0.7:
f3 (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = g2

Qhe
pw,ref
+ (1 g2 )
Qhe,ref
pw

(3)

Objective function f 4 linearly combines the heat transfer rate and the mass of the heat
exchanger, using a weighting factor g3 = 0.95:
f4 (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = g3

Qhe
mhe
+ (1 g3 )
Qhe,ref
mhe,ref

(4)

Objective function f 5 linearly combines the pressure drop of air and pressure drop of water,
using a weighting factor g4 = 0.5:
f5 (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = g4

pa,ref
pw,ref
+ g4
pa
pw

(5)

In all cases, the weighting factor accounts for the cost of energy in accordance with the relevant literature (Kundu, Barman, and Debnath 2008; Kundu and Das 2009.). Table 3 shows

Engineering Optimization

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Table 3. Calculated values for the prescribed design points

according to objective functions.
No.

f1

f2

f3

f4

f5

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

10,371
10,016
5,806
11,260
6,695
8,016
8,363
12,771
10,016
12,650
12,905
10,226
9,430
7,535
10,270

0.77
1.00
0.84
1.03
1.11
1.31
0.84
1.32
1.00
1.30
0.94
1.02
0.77
0.99
1.34

1.07
1.00
0.88
1.05
0.97
1.05
1.05
1.11
1.00
1.11
1.06
1.01
0.98
0.91
1.09

0.78
1.00
0.82
1.03
1.09
1.31
0.83
1.32
1.00
1.31
0.95
1.02
0.76
0.97
1.34

1.42
1.00
1.00
1.03
0.81
0.69
1.27
0.75
1.00
0.79
1.15
1.00
1.25
0.83
0.70

all calculated values for the prescribed data according to the objective functions used in the
visualization process, as described in the next section.

6.
6.1.

Visualization results for the heat exchanger objective functions

Visualization by the Chernoff faces technique

The previously described data sets for visualization using Chernoff faces were employed. The
results obtained for the five objective functions were associated with five different facial characteristics. For each of 15 prescribed data sets, one specific Chernoff face was constructed. In
the early 1970s, the cost associated with drawing these faces was rather expensive. The implementation of modern software packages that support this kind of visualization, such as Statistica,
has made this technique more accessible. The program used for visualization in this article was
Statistica 64, version 10 (StatSoft 2010). This statistical and analytical software package includes
data analysis, data management, statistics, data mining and data visualization procedures. Figure
7 shows the visualization results of the heat exchanger objective functions for the prescribed
design points using Chernoff faces.
Chernoff faces carry each carefully selected variable. The first variable (objective function f 1 )
is displayed as the face width. The wider the face, the greater the heat transfer per weight and vice
versa. It can be concluded that the values of prescribed data sets no. 8 and 10 are the highest,
and the value of no. 3 is the lowest. To display the value of the second independent variable
(objective function f 2 ), the vertical position of the ears is used (maximum at the top position).
From Figure 7 it can be seen that the values of cases no. 6, 8, 10 and 15 have the highest vertical
positions, and the values of the no. 1 and 13 the lowest positions. To display the third variable
(objective function f 3 ), the length of the nose is used. From this feature, it can be concluded that
cases no. 8 and 10 have the highest values, and cases no. 3 and 14 the lowest values. The fourth
variable (objective function f 4 ) is displayed as the length of the mouth. According to objective
function f 4 , and Figure 7, it can be concluded that cases no. 6, 8, 10 and 15 have the highest
values, and cases no. 1 and 13 the lowest values. The fifth variable (objective function f 5 ) is
shown as the width of the nose: the wider the nose the greater the value, and the thinner the nose
the lower the value. From Figure 7, it can be concluded that cases no. 1 and 7 have the highest
values and cases no. 6, 8, 10 and 15 the lowest values.

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10

V. Glazar et al.

Figure 7.

6.2.

Visualization of heat exchanger objective functions results using Chernoff faces.

Visualization by the star glyphs technique

The same data sets used for visualization by Chernoff faces were used for visualization by the
star glyph technique. The results are shown in Figure 8.
Different variables are displayed in Figure 8, with five rays starting from the same origin that
are arranged equidistantly in a circular pattern. The first independent variable (objective function
f 1 ) is set at 12:00 (as on a clock face) and the other variables are placed on the rays in a clockwise
direction (as shown on the legend at the bottom of the figure). The values of the variables are
expressed by the ray length, which is proportional to the value: a longer ray means a higher

Figure 8.

Visualization of heat exchanger objective functions results using star glyphs.

Engineering Optimization

11

value and vice versa. All values have been normalized to have the same length for the maximum
objective function value.
Star glyphs facilitate the detection of cases with multiple maximum values; in this investigation these were cases no. 8 and 10, with four out of five possible objective function values at the
maximum. However, as in case no. 3 in Figure 8, where the value of one ray compared to other
rays is much lower, perceptual recognition can become too difficult.
To examine and compare the convenience of the presented techniques for practical use,
engineering students were tested on the visualization of the data set described previously.

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6.3.

Results of optimization(s)

Objective functions f 1 f 5 were described in Section 5. For each set of prescribed design points
(Table 1), the heat transfer rate and pressure drops were numerically determined (Table 2) and
used to calculate values according to all five objective functions (Table 3). When dealing with
several responses, the optimum setting for each response can lead to conflicting results that have
to be checked and balanced. According to objective functions f 1 f 5 , optimum values of parameters x1 x3 were determined by the response surface method and are shown in Table 4. The
procedure and details of the optimization method can be found in Glazar (2011).
Cases no. 8 and 10, described in Table 1, have the closest parameter values to the acquired
optimal values of x1 x3 (Table 4). The water inlet velocity operating condition (x4 ) was included
in the optimization only to show hydrodynamic behaviour gains compared to the referent heat
exchanger. These gains for the determined optimal values of geometric parameters were 10% in
the case of lower water inlet velocity, 30% in the middle range and 45% in the case of higher
water velocities.
Although the response surface method has been proven to be reliable and accurate, additional
verification of the acquired parameter optimal values was carried out. Of the objective functions
f 1 f 5 , function f 2 was chosen to perform additional optimization by another method. A genetic
algorithm method was applied. The function f 2 linearly combines the heat transfer rate and the
decrease in air pressure drop, and accordingly has the determined final optimal values of the
geometric parameters that correspond to the maximal function values.
Genetic algorithms (Haupt and Haupt 1998) are a type of optimization algorithm used to find
the optimal solution, or solutions, to a given computational problem that maximizes or minimizes
a particular function (Fung et al. 2014). These algorithms are far more powerful and efficient
than random search and exhaustive search algorithms, yet require no extra information about the
given problem. This feature allows them to find solutions to problems that other optimization
methods cannot handle because of a lack of continuity, derivatives, linearity or other features
(Kanagaraj et al. 2013). The optimization results presented in this article with genetic algorithms
were obtained using the MatLab software package for practical solutions (MathWorks 2014).
Comparison of the results for optimal parameter values obtained previously by the response
surface method and additionally by means of genetic algorithms indicated very good agreement.

Table 4. Optimal values of design parameters for the prescribed

data sets of objective function f 2 .
Design parameter
Distance between flat tubes (Pt )
Fin pitch (F p )
Number of small rectangular channels (nsc )

Optimal value
12.5 mm
1 mm
24

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V. Glazar et al.
Table 5. Results for the best and worst combination of objective functions f 1 f 5 obtained
by the used optimization method and from insights into students testing results.
Students testing results

Best case(s)

Response
surface method

Chernoff faces
technique

No. 8

Case no. 8
17.9%
Case no. 10
7.1%
Case no. 3
17.9%

No. 10

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Worst case

6.4.

No. 3

Star glyph
technique
10.7%
21.4%
92.9%

Relation between the results of visualization techniques and optimization

The significant influence of objective function f 2 (along with f 1 ) on the heat exchanger performance has been selected for presentation by Chernoff faces with facial features that are the most
noticeable. According to head size/eccentricity and vertical ear position, faces no. 8 and 10 are
easiest to perceive, followed by faces no. 6 and 15.
Similar results were achieved using star glyphs, where star glyphs no. 8, 10 and 15, and partly
no. 6, can be distinguished most clearly from the others, simply by the length of all the rays.
Both glyph visualization techniques pointed to cases no. 8 and 10 from the prescribed data
sets, which in the previous section were detected as the ones with parameter values closest to
the optimal values. To determine which of the presented techniques is preferred by the user, they
were tested by engineering students, as described below.
6.5.

Evaluation of glyph techniques through testing by engineering students

Comparison of the optimization results obtained by the applied response surface method and the
insight based on the same data visualization through glyph techniques indicated a good match.
In an attempt to additionally evaluate these glyph techniques, the objective functions presented
in Figures 7 and 8 were submitted to a group of 28 students. They all were undergraduate university students in the first year of mechanical and electrical engineering study at the Faculty
of Engineering, University of Rijeka, Croatia. The participants had no experience in the related
subject, and the explanation about the test solving given at the beginning was intentionally short
and general. The participants were asked to indicate the cases that give the best and worst overall
combinations of parameters, i.e. objective functions. The results of student testing are presented
in Table 5, along with the cases determined as the best and worst by the optimization methods
used in this study.
The percentage of the indicated cases obtained by testing that corresponds to optimization
method indicates that the star glyph technique gives better insight into the data for engineering
students in comparison with the Chernoff faces technique. Therefore, the star glyph technique
can be considered as a simple and quick tool, which could be of even more interest to trained
personnel.

7.

Conclusion

In this article, visualization using Chernoff faces and star glyph techniques has been described
and performed. Data sets from the experimental and numerical investigation of a heat exchanger

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Engineering Optimization

13

with a microchannel coil have been the subjects of visualization. Analysis of the results indicated
the following.
It can be concluded that visualization using Chernoff faces is a good method when the goal is
to determine which cases are similar, or which variables have comparable values. It is rather difficult to determine just one face which has the minimum or maximum of the included independent
variables.
Regarding the visualization technique using star glyphs, it is easier to spot differences between
the values of certain variables with the length of rays. Difficulties in perceptual recognition may
occur when the value of one variable, i.e. the ray length, is much lower than the value of other
variables. This method of visualization is good for spotting similar elements in the examined
cases, and quickly identifying variables with similar values.
The main finding from the evaluation of related glyph techniques based on the engineering
students testing is that the star glyph technique is a simple visualization tool for the presentation
of multivariate data sets. The intention for the future work is to use a wider set of prescribed
design points and to perform user evaluation of glyph techniques based on a population with
considerable knowledge in the related engineering field.
The visualization of the adopted data sets, accomplished by multivariate analysis of two glyph
techniques, points to the cases that the optimization found to be optimal and furthermore can
indicate possible optimal cases. However, the decision to apply glyph techniques for engineering
visualization as a simple and low time-consuming method relies on careful thought about its
adequacy related to the demands of a certain visualization task.
Funding
This research was performed as part of the scientific projects Research and Development of Renewable Energy Components and Systems, and Design and Optimization of Power Transmissions, both supported by the Ministry of Science,
Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia.

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