S.m. Tavakkoli, L. Shahryari , A. Parsa,
Volume 3, Issue 3 (9-2013)
Abstract
In this article, the ant colony method is utilized for topology optimization of space structures. Strain energy of the structure is minimized while the material volume is limited to a certain amount. In other words, the stiffest possible structure is sought when certain given materials are used. In addition, a noise cleaning technique is addressed to prevent undesirable members in optimum topology. The performance of the method for topology optimization of space structures are demonstrated by three numerical examples.