Design of Experiments
Design of Experiments
CH # 4
Randomized Blocks and
Latin Square Design
The Blocking Principle
Blocking and nuisance factors
Randomized complete block design RCBD
Extension of the ANOVA to the RCBD
Latin square designs
Blocking is a technique for minimizing
nuisance factors (known & controllable)
Typical nuisance factors: batches of raw
material, operators, time (shifts, days, etc.),
different experimental units
Hardness Testing Example
To determine whether 4 different tips produce
different (mean) hardness reading on a Rockwell
hardness tester
Assignment of the tips to an experimental unit;
that is, a test coupon (Block)
The test coupons are a source of nuisance
variability
Alternatively, the experimenter may want to test
the tips across coupons of various hardness
levels
RCBD For Hardness Ex.
Assign all 4 tips to each coupon
Each coupon is called a block; that is, its a
more homogenous experimental unit on which to
test the tips
Variability between blocks can be large,
variability within a block should be relatively
small
In general, a block is a specific level of the
nuisance factor
A complete replicate of the basic experiment is
conducted in each block
The Hardness Testing Example
Suppose that we use b = 4 blocks:
Notice the two-way structure of the experiment
We are interested in testing the equality of treatment
means, but now we have to remove the variability
associated with the nuisance factor (the blocks)
ANOVA
Suppose that there are a treatments (factor
levels) and b blocks
A statistical model (effects model) for the
RCBD is
The relevant (fixed effects) hypotheses are
1, 2,...,
1, 2,...,
ij i j ij
i a
y
j b
t | c
=
= + + +
=
0 1 2
1
: where (1/ ) ( )
b
a i i j i
j
H b t | t
=
= = = = + + = +
= + + + + =