Optimum parameterization in grillage design under a worst point load

Abstract

The optimum grillage design belongs to nonlinear constrained optimization problem. The determination of beam scantlings for the grillage structure is a very crucial matter out of whole structural design process. The performance of optimization methods, based on penalty functions, is highly problem-dependent and many methods require additional tuning of some variables. This additional tuning is the influences of penalty coefficient, which depend strongly on the degree of constraint violation. Moreover, Binary-coded Genetic Algorithm (BGA) meets certain difficulties when dealing with continuous and/or discrete search spaces with large dimensions. With the above reasons, Real-coded Micro-Genetic Algorithm (RGA) is proposed to find the optimum beam scantlings of the grillage structure without handling any of penalty functions. RGA can help in avoiding the premature convergence and search for global solution-spaces, because of its wide spread applicability, global perspective and inherent parallelism. Direct stiffness method is used as a numerical tool for the grillage analysis. In optimization study to find minimum weight, sensitivity study is carried out with varying beam configurations. From the simulation results, it has been concluded that the proposed RGA is an effective optimization tool for solving continuous and/or discrete nonlinear real-world optimization problems.