A parallelised firefly algorithm for structural size and shape optimisation with multimodal constraints

Abstract

In structural mechanics, mass reduction conflicts with frequency constraints when they are lower bounded since vibration mode shapes may easily switch due to shape modifications. This may impose severe restrictions to gradient-based optimisation methods. Here, in this chapter, it is investigated the use of the Firefly Algorithm (FA) as an optimization engine of such problems. It is suggested some new implementations in the basic algorithm, such as the parallelisation of the code, based on literature reports in order to improve its performance. It is presented several optimization examples of simple and complex trusses that are widely reported in the literature as benchmark examples solved with several non-heuristic and heuristic algorithms. The results show that the algorithm outperforms the deterministic algorithms in accuracy, particularly using the Parallel Synchronous FA version. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.