• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.603-617
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• 2022

Structural design, in general, is developed through trial and error technique which is guided by standards criteria and based on the intuition and experience of the engineer, a context that leads to structural over-dimensioning, with uneconomic solutions. Aiming to find the optimal design, structural optimization methods have been developed to find a balance between cost, structural safety, and material performance. These methods have become a great opportunity in the steel structural engineering domain since they have as their main purpose is weight minimization, a factor directly correlated to the real cost of the structure. Assuming an objective function of minimum weight with stress and displacement constraints provided by Brazilian standards, the present research proposes the sizing optimization and combined approach of sizing and shape optimization, through a software developed to implement the Simulated Annealing metaheuristic algorithm. Therefore, two steel plane frame layouts, each admitting four typical truss geometries, were proposed in order to expose the difference between the optimal solutions. The assessment of the optimal solutions indicates a notable weight reduction, especially in sizing and shape optimization combination, in which the quantity of design variables is increased along with the search space, improving the efficiency of the optimal solutions achieved.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.711-724
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• 2012

The goal of this study is to conceptually orientate optimized layouts of outrigger belt trusses which are in widespread use today in the design of tall buildings by strut-and-tie truss models utilizing a topology optimization method. In this study unknown strut-and-tie models are realized by using a typical SIMP method of topology optimization methods. In tradition strut-and-tie model designs find the appropriate strut-and-tie trusses along force paths with respect to elastic stress distribution, and then engineers or designers determine the most proper truss models by experience and intuition. It is linked to a trial-and-error procedure based on heuristic strategies. The presented strut-and tie model design by using SIMP provides that belt truss models are automatically and robustly produced by optimal layout information of struts-and-ties conforming to force paths without any trial-and-error. Numerical applications are studied to verify that outrigger belt trusses for tall buildings are optimally chosen by the proposed method for both static and dynamic responses.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1436-1441
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• 2003

Recently, simulated annealing algorithms have widely been applied to many structural optimization problems. In this paper, simulated annealing, boltzmann annealing, fast annealing and adaptive simulated annealing are applied to optimization of truss structures for improvement quality of objective function and number of function evaluation. These algorithms are classified by cooling schedule. The authors have changed parameters of ASA's cooling schedule and the influence of cooling schedule parameters on structural optimization obtained is discussed. In addition, cooling schedule of BA and ASA mixed is applied to 10 bar-truss structure.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.3 no.3 s.9
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• pp.67-74
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to improve convergence speed of topology optimization procedure using the existing ESO method and to deal with topology decision of the truss structures according to a boundary condition, such as cantilever type. At the existing ESO topology optimization procedure for the truss structures, the adjustment of member sizes according to target stress has been executed by increasing or reducing a very small value from each member size. In this case, it takes too much iteration till convergence. Accordingly, it is practically hard to obtain optimum topology for a large scale structures. For that reason, it is necessary to improve convergence speed of ESO method more effectively. During the topology decision procedure, member sizes are adjusted by calculating approximate solution for member sizes corresponding to the target stress at every step, the new member sizes are adjusted by such method are applied in FEA procedure of next step.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.1093-1117
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• 2016

Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) has been widely used to investigate the sensitivity of the model output with respect to its input parameters. In this paper a new single-solution search optimization algorithm is developed based on the GSA, and applied to the size optimization of truss structures. In this method the search space of the optimization is determined using the sensitivity indicator of variables. Unlike the common meta-heuristic algorithms, where all the variables are simultaneously changed in the optimization process, in this approach the sensitive variables of solution are iteratively changed more rapidly than the less sensitive ones in the search space. Comparisons of the present results with those of some previous population-based meta-heuristic algorithms demonstrate its capability, especially for decreasing the number of fitness functions evaluations, in solving the presented benchmark problems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.27-37
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• 2020

Structural optimization problems with discrete design variables require more function calculations (or finite element analyses) than those in the continuous design space. In this study, a method to find an optimal solution in the discrete design of the truss structure is presented, reducing the number of function calculations. Because a continuous optimal solution is the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker point that satisfies the optimality condition, it is assumed that the discrete optimal solution is around the continuous optimum. Then, response values such as weight, displacement, and stress are predicted using approximate models-referred to as hybrid metamodels-within specified design ranges. The discrete design method using the hybrid metamodels is used as a post-process of the continuous optimization process. Standard truss design problems of 10-bar, 25-bar, 15-bar, and 52-bar are solved to show the usefulness of this method. The results are compared with those of existing methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.2
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• pp.195-203
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• 2022

This paper presents the quantification and location damage detection of plane and space truss structures in a two-phase method to reduce the computations efforts significantly. In the first phase, a proposed damage indicator based on the residual force vector concept is used to get the suspected damaged members. In the second phase, using damage quantification as a variable, a teaching-learning based optimization algorithm (TLBO) is used to obtain the damage quantification value of the suspected members obtained in the first phase. TLBO is a relatively modern algorithm that has proved distinguished in solving optimization problems. For more verification of TLBO effeciency, the classical particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used in the second phase to make a comparison between TLBO and PSO algorithms. As it is clear, the first phase reduces the search space in the second phase, leading to considerable reduction in computations efforts. The method is applied on three examples, including plane and space trusses. Results have proved the capability of the proposed method to precisely detect the quantification and location of damage easily with low computational efforts, and the efficiency of TLBO in comparison to the classical PSO.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.231-242
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• 2016

To minimize the compliance of frame, a method to optimize the topology of bracing system in a frame is presented. The frame is first filled uniformly with a truss-like continuum, in which there are an infinite number of members. The frame and truss-like continuum are analysed by the finite element method altogether. By optimizing the distribution of members in the truss-like continuum over the whole design domain, the optimal bracing pattern is determined. As a result, the frame's lateral stiffness is enforced. Structural compliance and displacement are decreased greatly with a smaller increase in material volume. Since optimal bracing systems are described by the distribution field of members, rather than by elements, fewer elements are needed to establish the detailed structure. Furthermore, no numerical instability exists. Therefore it has high calculation effectiveness.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.14-26
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• 2001

This paper presents a novel design approach that could generate structural design alternatives having different topologies and then, select the optimum structure from them with simulataneously determining its optimum design variables related to geometry and the member size subjected to the multiple objective design environments. For this purpose, a specialized genetic algorithm, called StrGA_DeAl + MOGA, which can handle the design alternatives and multi-criteria problems very effectively, is developed for the optimal structural design. To validate the developed method, method, plain truss design problems are considered as illustrative example. To begin with, some possible topological of the truss structure are suggested based on the stability criterion that should be satisfied under the given loading condition. Then, with the consideration of the given multi-criteria, several different topology forms are selected as design alternatives for the second step of the conceptual design process. Based on the chosen topolgy of truss structures, the sizing or shaping optimization process starts to determine the optimum design parameters. Ten-bar truss problems are given in the paper to confirm the above concept and methodology.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.3 s.36
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• pp.487-495
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• 1998

Recently, the space truss has been attracted by many designers because of their ability to support significant loads with a minimum material. And it is relatively flexible to design the configuration of structures. This paper presents a volume optimization for the space truss on the basis of result evaluated from nonlinear analysis. The optimization of the truss is done by nonlinear optimum GINO(General Interactive Nonlinear Optimizer) program. The objective function considered is the volume of the steel bars. The constraints for optimum design are the design limits, such as the axial force strength, maximum slenderness, minimum thickness, allowable deflection and ratio of the external diameter to thickness of the circular tube bars.