Combining Migration and Differential Evolution Strategies for Optimum Design of Truss Structures with Dynamic Constraints

Abstract

The structural optimization problem with frequency constraints is one of the most challenging problems in the field of structural optimization as it typically involves a high degree of nonlinearity which makes the challenge of finding optimum solutions hard. In this study, a combined migration and differential evolution strategies (MS–DE) algorithm is presented for optimum design of truss structures with multiple frequency constraints. In the proposed method, the migration strategy (MS) is helpful to provide an accurate exploitation in the search space by sharing information between the individuals, while the differential evolution (DE) strategy is beneficial for increasing diversity of the population and performing efficient search within the global range. Numerical results and comparisons to some existing optimization techniques based on six benchmark truss design examples with multiple frequency constraints demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MS–DE method.