• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.175-180
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• 2008

Due to the global environment problems and the consumer's need for higher vehicle performance, it becomes very important for the global car makers to reduce vehicle weight. To reduce vehicle weight, many car makers have tried to use lightweight materials, for example, aluminum, magnesium, and plastics, for the vehicle structures and components. Especially, the ASF(aluminum space frame) is known for the excellent concept of the vehicle to satisfy structural rigidity, safety performance and weight reduction. In this research, the design of experiments and the multi-disciplinary optimization technique were utilized to meet the weight and structural rigidity target of the ASF. For the structural performance of the ASF, the locations and the size of aluminum extruded frames, aluminum cast nodes, and the aluminum sheets were optimized. As a result, the optimization design procedure has been set up to meet both structural and weight target of the ASF, and the assembled ASF showed good structural performance and weight reduction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.1403-1413
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• 2014

Structural optimization is widely accepted in industrial fields. Structural optimization pursues improved performance of the structures. Recently, structural optimization is actively utilized due to the well-developed commercial design software systems. Three popular commercial structural optimization systems are investigated and compared. They are MSC.Nastran, Genesis and OptiStruct. The performance of the systems is analyzed based on the quality of the optimum solution and the computational time. Linear static response size, shape and topology optimizations are explored and compared with some test examples. For fair comparison, the systems are run in the same environment and the optimization parameters affecting the performance are unified. The optimization results are analyzed and the performances and characteristics of each software system are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.417-432
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• 2019

Seismic performance analysis of steel-brace reinforced concrete (RC) frame using topology optimization in highly seismic region was discussed in this research. Topology optimization based on truss-like material model was used, which was to minimum volume in full-stress method. Optimized bracing systems of low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise RC frames were established, and optimized bracing systems of substructure were also gained under different constraint conditions. Thereafter, different structure models based on optimized bracing systems were proposed and applied. Last, structural strength, structural stiffness, structural ductility, collapse resistant capacity, collapse probability and demolition probability were studied. Moreover, the brace buckling was discussed. The results show that bracing system of RC frame could be derived using topology optimization, and bracing system based on truss-like model could help to resolve numerical instabilities. Bracing system of topology optimization was more effective to enhance structural stiffness and strength, especially in mid-rise and high-rise frames. Moreover, bracing system of topology optimization contributes to increase collapse resistant capacity, as well as reduces collapse probability and accumulated demolition probability. However, brace buckling might weaken beneficial effects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.833-845
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• 2015

Natural frequencies of the structural systems should be far away from the excitation frequency in order to avoid or reduce the destructive effects of dynamic loads on structures. To accomplish this goal, a structural optimization on size and shape has been performed considering frequency constraints. Such an optimization problem has highly nonlinear property. Thus, the quality of the solution is not independent of the optimization technique to be applied. This study presents the performance evaluation of the recently proposed meta-heuristic algorithm called Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) as an optimization engine in the weight optimization of the truss structures under frequency constraints. Some examples regarding the optimization of trusses on shape and size with frequency constraints are solved. Also, the results obtained are tabulated for comparison. The results demonstrated that the performance of the TLBO is satisfactory. Additionally, TLBO is better than other methods in some cases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.543-560
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• 2011

In structural engineering there are randomness inherently exist on determination of the loads, strength, geometry, and so on, and the manufacturing of the structural members, workmanship etc. Thus, objective and constraint functions of the optimization problem are functions that depend on those randomly natured components. The constraints being the function of the random variables are evaluated by using reliability index or performance measure approaches in the optimization process. In this study, the minimum weight of a space truss is obtained under the uncertainties on the load, material and cross-section areas with harmony search using reliability index and performance measure approaches. Consequently, optimization algorithm produces the same result when both the approaches converge. Performance measure approach, however, is more efficient compare to reliability index approach in terms of the convergence rate and iterations needed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1444-1451
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• 2001

The evolutionary structural optimization(ESO) method has been under continuous development since 1992. The bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization(BESO) method is made of additive and removal procedure. The BESO method is very useful to search the global optimum and to reduce the computational time. This paper presents the ranked bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization(R-BESO) method which adds elements based on a rank, and the performance indicator which can estimate a fully stressed model. The R-BESO method can obtain the optimum design using less iteration number than iteration number of the BESO.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.445-454
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• 2020

Structural damage identification (SDI) is a crucial step in structural health monitoring. However, some of the existing SDI methods cannot provide enough identification accuracy and efficiency in practice. A novel whale optimization algorithm (WOA) based method is proposed for SDI by weighting modal data and flexibility assurance criterion in this study. At first, the SDI problem is mathematically converted into a constrained optimization problem. Unlike traditional objective function defined using frequencies and mode shapes, a new objective function on the SDI problem is formulated by weighting both modal data and flexibility assurance criterion. Then, the WOA method, due to its good performance of fast convergence and global searching ability, is adopted to provide an accurate solution to the SDI problem, different predator mechanisms are formulated and their probability thresholds are selected. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is assessed by numerical simulations on a simply-supported beam and a 31-bar truss structures. For the given multiple structural damage conditions under environmental noises, the WOA-based SDI method can effectively locate structural damages and accurately estimate severities of damages. Compared with other optimization methods, such as particle swarm optimization and dragonfly algorithm, the proposed WOA-based method outperforms in accuracy and efficiency, which can provide a more effective and potential tool for the SDI problem.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2008

The paper deals with the numerical analysis and design optimization of polysilicon micro thermal flexure actuator. The deflection of a thermal actuator is implicitly related to the actuation time so that such deflection is to be maximized under the consideration of structural performances such as maximum stress and natural frequencies. At first, the structural formulation of a thermal actuator is reviewed, and its CAE based simulation is performed to verify the numerical model. A parametric study is then conducted to identify the mainly effective design variables. Finally, the design of a micro thermal actuator is explored in the context of deterministic optimization and reliability based design optimization in the present study.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.271-294
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• 2014

In recent years, along with the advances made in performance-based design optimization, the need for fast calculation of response parameters in dynamic analysis procedures has become an important issue. The main problem in this field is the extremely high computational demand of time-history analyses which may convert the solution algorithm to illogical ones. Two simplifying strategies have shown to be very effective in tackling this problem; first, simplified nonlinear modeling investigating minimum level of structural modeling sophistication, second, wavelet analysis of earthquake records decreasing the number of acceleration points involved in time-history loading. In this paper, we try to develop an efficient framework, using both strategies, to solve the performance-based multi-objective optimal design problem considering the initial cost and the seismic damage cost of steel moment-frame structures. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is employed as the optimization algorithm to search the Pareto optimal solutions. The constraints of the optimization problem are considered in accordance with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommended design specifications. The results from numerical application of the proposed framework demonstrate the capabilities of the framework in solving the present multi-objective optimization problem.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.339-353
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• 2023

The primary objective of the current study is to optimize and evaluate the seismic performance of steel momentresisting frame (MRF) structures considering soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. The structural optimization is implemented in the context of performance-based design in accordance with FEMA-350 at different confidence levels from 50% to 90% by taking into account fixed- and flexible-base conditions using an efficient metaheuristic algorithm. Nonlinear response-history analysis (NRHA) is conducted to evaluate the seismic response of structures, and the beam-on-nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) model is used to simulate the soil-foundation interaction under the MRFs. The seismic performance of optimally designed fixed- and flexible-base steel MRFs are compared in terms of overall damage index, seismic collapse safety, and interstory drift ratios at different performance levels. Two illustrative examples of 6- and 12-story steel MRFs are presented. The results show that the consideration of SSI in the optimization process of 6- and 12-story steel MRFs results in an increase of 1.0 to 9.0 % and 0.5 to 5.0 % in structural weight and a slight decrease in structural seismic safety at different confidence levels.