Optimal design of skeletal structures via the charged system search algorithm

A new meta-heuristic optimization algorithm is presented for design of skeletal structures. The algorithm is inspired by the Coulomb and Gauss’s laws of electrostatics in physics, and it is called charged system search (CSS). CSS utilizes a number of charged particle (CP) which affects each other based on their fitness values and separation distances considering the governing laws of Coulomb and Gauss from electrical physics and the governing laws of motion from the Newtonian mechanics. Some truss and frame structures are optimized with the CSS algorithm. Comparison of the results of the CSS with those of other meta-heuristic algorithms shows the robustness of the new algorithm.

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