Effectiveness of methods applied in discrete minimum weight design

摘要

The paper deals with effectiveness of discrete or continuous-discrete optimization methods applied to optimal design of truss structures. The following six methods: evolutionary optimization (EO), evolutionary optimization with controlled mutation (EOM), controlled enumeration (CE), transformation to continuous optimization (TCO), preselection of available member sizes (PAMS), removal of redundant material (RRM) are considered. Two bench-mark examples of different structures are applied to compare results obtained by each method. The first example is a well known 10 element plane truss structure. The second example is a 24 element spatial truss dome. The cross sectional areas of bars treated as design variables should be chosen from a given set-catalogue. Minimum weight structures with optimization constraints on displacements and stresses (or elemental reliability) are compared and discussed.