2001 Volume 50 Pages 435-440
Present paper describes the use of a stochastic search procedure based on genetic algorithms (GAs), in developing near-optimal topologies of loadbearing frame structures. Practical structures are designed so as to bear various loads which are caused by earthquake, wind and so on. And a topology which is optimized under a certain loading condition can’t guarantee the effective performance toward the other loading conditions. In this paper, the mixed problem, that is, layout, sizing and material optimization is solved under the various loading conditions using the preferred optimization method. Numerical results are presented showing the efficiency of the proposed method.