Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2004

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M. Eng.

Department

Industrial Engineering

Committee Chair

Biles, William E.

Subject

Materials handling--Simulation methods

Abstract

This research project describes the application of a master/slave configuration of processors to study a comparison of alternative material handling configurations for automated manufacturing. Such a study usually requires a large number of simulation replications, and carrying out those replications on a multi-processor platform can yield a significant savings in elapsed time. The objective of this study is to develop such a platform. In the present application, a parallel replication simulation system is developed to foster simultaneous processing. This system utilizes two separate applications to facilitate communication between master and slave computers. Additionally, the "master" and "slave" or "client" applications work in conjunction with a specialized set of Arena(tm) simulation models. The simulation models considered in this research effort represent two types of transport mechanisms in a closed cell work environment. Transport type, transport velocity, and an associated efficiency factor of a machine in cell 3. These models have been modified for use within the parallel replications environment. This system uses 2^3 = 8 design points (simulation models) for an experimental design. The models are transferred to remote PCUs via Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) file transfer. Following receipt, the models are executed, and results sent back to the "master" application where factor significance is determined. The resulting Metamodel (Kleijnen, 1979) describes a linear relationship between model variables, and system output.

Download

Share

COinS