General Aspects of Evolutionary Structural Optimization: A Review

Abstract

Evolutionary structural optimization (ESO) method has been presented by Xie and Steven in 1993 to deal with numerical structural topology optimization problems. Although ESO has appeared on a simple foundation, many contributions have been made by many researchers up to now. ESO has an algorithm -sometimes defined as intuitive- which is running by removing the elements that have lower design values (stress, strain energy, i.e.) from the design domain and attaining the shape and topology of a more fully stressed structure. Such a process is carried out repeatedly until an optimum design is achieved and final decision is made by evaluating the applicability of the last design formed after the process. This study is based on the general aspects of ESO to give information about the development and a clear explanation of the ESO procedure. Also two examples that have part in the literature have been presented to demonstrate the capability of this method.

Keywords

• Yapısal optimizasyon, Sonlu elemanlar yöntemi, Evrimsel yöntem, Bilgisayar uygulamaları.