Investigation of a practical method of structural optimization by genetic algorithms (Proposal of a hybrid GA and application towards the thickness optimization of a CRT)

• Published in: JSME international journal. Series A, Solid mechanics and material engineering Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 330 - 337
• Main Authors: SAKAMOTO, Hiroo, TAKADA, Shiro, ITOH, Junko, MIYAZAKI, Masayuki, HIJIKATA, Akemi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 01.07.2001; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Subjects: Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Physics; Solid mechanics; Static elasticity; Static elasticity (thermoelasticity...); Structural and continuum mechanics; Finite element method; Geometrical shape; Shell; Three dimensional model; Genetic algorithm; Cathode tube; Parallel computation; Numerical method; Axial symmetry; Optimization; Structural analysis
• ISSN: 1344-7912; 1347-5363
• DOI: 10.1299/jsmea.44.330

A new hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) and a parallel genetic algorithm are proposed in this paper in order to improve the convergence of structural optimization. The fully stressed design, FSD, method and a GA were incorporated into the hybrid GA. In the parallel GA, the "island model" was applied to reduce the computation time. Stress analyses were carried out with a commercial FEM code to obtain the optimum solution with high reliability even in a complex model. As a result of the axi-symmetric shell model, the optimum solution by using the proposed hybrid GA was 50% lighter than that by using simple GA. Furthermore, the computation time using the parallel GA with 10 processors was reduced by up to 1/7 of the time using one processor. These methods were then used to optimize the thickness of a three-dimensional shell model of a CRT. As a result of the application, the weight of the optimum model was 25% lighter than that of the reference model.