Elite-initial population for efficient topology optimization using multi-objective genetic algorithms

The purpose of this paper is to improve the efficiency of multi-objective topology optimization using a genetic algorithm (GA) with bar-system representation. We proposed a new GA using an elite initial population obtained from a Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) using a weighted sum method. SIMP with a weighted sum method is one of the most established methods using sensitivity analysis. Although the implementation of the SIMP method is straightforward and computationally effective, it may be difficult to find a complete Pareto-optimal set in a multi-objective optimization problem. In this study, to build a more convergent and diverse global Pareto-optimal set and reduce the GA computational cost, some individuals, with similar topology to the local optimum solution obtained from the SIMP using the weighted sum method, were introduced for the initial population of the GA. The proposed method was applied to a structural topology optimization example and the results of the proposed method were compared with those of the traditional method using standard random initialization for the initial population of the GA.