ThreeLevel Simplex Designs and Their Use in Sequential Experimentation,” submittedrevised.pdfVIP

Three-Level Simplex Designs and Their Use in Second-Order Composite Designs ROBERT W. MEE University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0532 Abstract This article first presents three-level simplex designs of n = k+1 runs for k factors. Each simplex design is composed of k treatment combinations from a two-level factorial design, plus an additional base run that represents a third level for each factor. These orthogonal, first-order designs are simple to construct. It is also noted that the k treatment combinations in each simplex design form a subset of the saturated resolution V designs proposed by Rechtschaffner (1967) coincide with the axial points in the second-order, asymmetric composite designs proposed by Box and Wilson (1951) and later discussed by Lucas (1974). Including the base point permits inclusion of a block effect in the fitted second-order model. Completed October 29, 1999 Dr. Mee is Professor in the Department of Statistics. He has been department head since 1997. He is a member of ASQ. 1 Introduction Crosier (1996) presented symmetric orientations for simplex designs. His designs were an improvement for practitioners on the usual Helmert-orientation simplex design, since they maintain a common set of levels for each factor. However, for most values of the number of factors, k, Crosier’s designs require five or six factor levels. Such designs are rather complicated, in light of the purpose of fitting the simple first-order model. A symmetric simplex design with three levels can be constructed for any k by combining k axial points and a single base point. Let the axial point for the ith factor be defined X =