In this paper, we propose a new method, called the level-collapsing method, to construct branching Latin hypercube designs (BLHDs). The obtained design has a sliced structure in the third part, that is, the part for the shared factors, which is desirable for the qualitative branching factors. The construction method is easy to implement, and (near) orthogonality can be achieved in the obtained BLHDs. A simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the new designs.

中文翻译：

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改进分支拉丁超立方体设计的构建

在本文中，我们提出了一种称为水平折叠方法的新方法来构建分支拉丁超立方体设计（BLHD）。获得的设计在第三部分具有切片结构，即共享因子的部分，这对于定性分支因子是可取的。该构造方法易于实现，并且可以在获得的 BLHD 中实现（接近）正交性。提供了一个仿真示例来说明新设计的有效性。