Building Performance Optimization of Net Zero-Energy Buildings - Modeling, Design, and Optimization of Net-Zero Energy Buildings - page 251

the form of a curve; named after the Italian-French economist, Vilfredo
Pareto). These solutions all have the characteristic that none of the
objectives can be improved without prejudicing another.
In the past two decades, researchers have solved design problems for real
buildings using single-objective or multi-objective functions. Figure 5.4
shows the distribution by objective of 92 papers that use optimization
algorithms, applied to buildings. It is observed that most researchers
consider energy as the main objective for BPO.
Fig. 5.4 The distribution of objective functions using BPO in literature
5.2.2 Optimization Problem Definition
The formal goal of a minimization study is to find the value x * of a design
variable vector, x , such that f ( x *) is the minimum value of f ( x ), with x
varying within a certain feasible design space. More formally