A local-restart coupled strategy for simultaneous sizing and geometry truss optimization

• Autor(a) principal: Torii,André Jacomel
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Lopez,Rafael Holdorf, Luersen,Marco Antônio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Latin American journal of solids and structures (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1679-78252011000300008
• topic: global optimization; truss structures; geometry optimization; size optimization; stress constraints; minimum volume

This paper presents an approach for the global optimization of truss sizing and geometry that is based on a probabilistic restart procedure coupled with a local search algorithm. The resulting algorithm is able to guarantee local optimality and provides a set of local optima which contain, with an increasing probability as the number of restarts increases, the global solution. The optimization problem searches for a truss structure of minimum volume, subject to stress constraints. The design variables are the bars cross-section areas and some nodal coordinates. Several loading conditions are also considered. Finally, four numerical examples are presented and the main aspects of the approach are discussed.