Simultaneous Topology, Shape, and Sizing Optimisation of Plane Trusses with Adaptive Ground Finite Elements Using MOEAs

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel integrated design strategy to accomplish simultaneous topology shape and sizing optimisation of a two-dimensional (2D) truss. An optimisation problem is posed to find a structural topology, shape, and element sizes of the truss such that two objective functions, mass and compliance, are minimised. Design constraints include stress, buckling, and compliance. The procedure for an adaptive ground elements approach is proposed and its encoding/decoding process is detailed. Two sets of design variables defining truss layout, shape, and element sizes at the same time are applied. A number of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are implemented to solve the design problem. Comparative performance based on a hypervolume indicator shows that multiobjective population-based incremental learning (PBIL) is the best performer. Optimising three design variable types simultaneously is more efficient and effective.