A binary particle swarm optimization for continuum structural topology optimization

The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, a relatively recent bio-inspired approach to solve combinatorial optimization problems mimicking the social behavior of birds flocking, is applied to problems of continuum structural topology design for the purpose of investigating optimal topologies and automatically creating innovative solutions. An overview of the PSO and binary PSO algorithms are first described. A discretized topology design representation and the method for mapping binary particle into this representation are then detailed. Subsequently, a modified binary PSO algorithm that adopts the concept of genotype-phenotype representation is illustrated. Several well-studied examples from structural topology optimization problems of minimum weight and minimum compliance are used to demonstrate its efficiency and versatility. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and its ability to find families of structural topologies. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.