A HYBRID ALGORITHM FOR SIZING AND LAYOUT OPTIMIZATION OF TRUSS STRUCTURES COMBINING DISCRETE PSO AND CONVEX APPROXIMATION

An efficient method for size and layout optimization of the truss structures is presented in this paper. In order to this, an efficient method by combining an improved discrete particle swarm optimization (IDPSO) and method of moving asymptotes (MMA) is proposed. In the hybrid of IDPSO and MMA, the nodal coordinates defining the layout of the structure are optimized with MMA, and afterwards the results of MMA are used in IDPSO to optimize the cross-section areas. The results show that the hybrid of IDPSO and MMA can effectively accelerate the convergence rate and can quickly reach the optimum design.