Annealing Strategy for Optimal Structural Design

An annealing method is presented for obtaining the optimal design of structural systems. The method uses a random sequence of designs to determine the optimal design. In performing the optimization, the method uses two desirable features: the first is to achieve an automatic reduction of the search range, and the second is to perform sensitivity analysis for the design variables. The present method is not as effective as classical optimal design methods for problems with constraints arising from static loads. However, the method requires less iterations to converge compared to other simulated annealing methods. The present method is advantageous over classical methods for problems with constraints arising from dynamic loading. By contrast, classical optimization methods for problems with constraints arising from dynamic loading either fail to converge or produce designs which may be local minimums. Numerical examples illustrate how the present strategy succeeds while classical optimal design methods fail.

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