Optimal design of truss structures for size and shape with frequency constraints using a collaborative optimization strategy

A new metaheuristic strategy is proposed for size and shape optimization problems with frequency constraints. These optimization problems are considered to be highly non-linear and non-convex. The proposed strategy extends the idea of using a single optimization process to a series of collaborative optimization processes. In this study, a modified teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO), which is a relatively simple algorithm with no intrinsic parameters controlling its performance, is utilized in a collaborative framework and introduced as a higher-level TLBO algorithm called school-based optimization (SBO). SBO considers a school with multiple independent classrooms and multiple teachers with inter-classroom collaboration where teachers are reassigned to classrooms based on their fitness. SBO significantly improves the both exploration and exploitation capabilities of TLBO without increasing the algorithm's complexity. In addition, since the SBO algorithm uses multiple independent classrooms with interchanging teachers, the algorithm is less likely to be influenced by local optima. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of the number of classes and the class size, which are the only parameters of SBO. The SBO algorithm is applied to five benchmark truss optimization problems with frequency constraints and the statistical results are compared to other optimization techniques in the literature. The quality and robustness of the results indicate the efficiency of the proposed SBO algorithm.