Title: Alternatives to resolution IV screening designs in 16 runs

Authors: Bradley Jones, Douglas C. Montgomery

Addresses: SAS Institute, SAS Campus Dr., Cary, NC 27513, USA. ' Arizona State University, School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA

Abstract: The resolution IV regular fractional factorial designs in 16 runs for six, seven, and eight factors are in standard use. They are economical and provide clear estimates of main effects when three-factor and higher-order interactions are negligible. However, because the two-factor interactions are completely confounded, experimenters are frequently required to augment the original fraction with new runs to resolve ambiguities in interpretation. We identify non-regular orthogonal fractions in 16 runs for these situations that have no complete confounding of two-factor interactions. These designs allow for the unambiguous estimation of models containing both main effects and a few two-factor interactions. We present the rationale behind the selection of these designs from the non-isomorphic 16-run fractions and illustrate how to use them with an example from the literature.

Keywords: screening experiments; design resolution; aliases; non-regular designs; non-regular orthogonal fractions; unambiguous estimation; model estimation; 16-run fractions; fractional factorial designs; experimental design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEDPO.2010.034986

International Journal of Experimental Design and Process Optimisation, 2010 Vol.1 No.4, pp.285 - 295

Published online: 31 Aug 2010 *