scalar_objectives

Number of scalar objective functions

Specification

  • Alias: num_scalar_objectives

  • Arguments: INTEGER

Description

This keyword describes the number of scalar objective functions. It is meant to be used in conjunction with field_objectives, which describes the number of field objectives functions. The total number of objective functions, both scalar and field, is given by objective_functions. If only scalar objective functions are specified, it is not necessary to specify the number of scalar terms explicitly: one can simply say objective_functions = 5 and get 5 scalar objectives. However, if there are three scalar objectives and 2 field objectives, then objective_functions = 5 but scalar_objectives = 3 and field_objectives = 2.

Objective functions are responses that are used with optimization methods in Dakota. Currently, each term in a field objective is added to the total objective function presented to the optimizer. For example, if you have one field objective with 100 terms (e.g. a time-temperature trace with 100 time points and 100 corresponding temperature points), the 100 temperature values will be added to create the overall objective.