Direct index coding for discrete sizing optimization of structures by genetic algorithms

Genetic algorithm is known as a generalized method ofstochastic search and has been successfully applied to various types ofoptimization problems. by gasit is expected to improve the solution at the expense ofadditional computational effort. one ofthe key points which controls theaccuracy andconvergencerate ofsuchaprocessis theselectedmethod ofcoding/decodingof the original problem variables and the discrete feasibility space to be searched by ga s. in this paper, a direct index coding (dic) is developed and utilizedfor the discrete sizing optimization of structures. the ga operators are specialized and adopted for this kind of.encoded chromosomes and are compared to those of traditional ga s. the well-known 10-bar truss example from literature is treated here as a comparison benchmark, and the outstanding computational efficiency and stability of the proposed method is illustrated. the application of the proposed encoding method is not limited to truss structures and can also be directly applied to frame sizing problems.