System-level decisions can have a large impact on the success of any design project, including those in the fluid power domain. Regardless of efforts by designers to optimize individual fluid power components, poor decisions at the systems level can lead to poor system performance and unsatisfied design requirements. In this paper, the principles of system-level decision making are applied to the design of fluid power systems. Describe a methodology for modelling fluid power component technology using predictive modelling and data mining techniques in a way that facilitates system-level modelling and decision making is described. This approach is demonstrated on the design of a hydraulic log splitter.

Keywords: systems design, tradeoff modelling, parameterized Pareto frontiers