ADVANCES IN COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN, cilt.2, sa.3, ss.195-210, 2017 (ESCI)
Simultaneous optimization of trusses which concurrently takes into account design variables related to the size, shape and topology of the structure is recognized as highly complex optimization problems. In this class of optimization problems, it is possible to encounter several unstable mechanisms throughout the solution process. However, to obtain a feasible solution, these unstable mechanisms somehow should be rejected from the set of candidate solutions. This study proposes triangular unit based method (TUBM) instead of ground structure method, which is conventionally used in the topology optimization, to decrease the complexity of search space of simultaneous optimization of the planar truss structures. TUBM considers stability of the triangular units for 2 dimensional truss systems. In addition, integrated particle swarm optimizer (iPSO) strengthened with robust technique so called improved fly-back mechanism is employed as the optimizer tool to obtain the solution for these class of problems. The results obtained in this study show the applicability and efficiency of the TUBM combined with iPSO for the simultaneous optimization of planar truss structures.