ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: During the last four decades a significant amount of research has been published in the area of structural optimization. These papers are dealing with development of algorithms and their advantages in numerical solutions along with engineering applications. Chronologically the publications may be roughly classified as follows: mathematical programming, optimality criteria, and genetic algorithms. The objective functions (cost function) are also comprehensively investigated and may also be classified as: minimum weight, minimum cost, and multi-objective function. This paper introduces the fundamentals related to the algorithms, cost functions, constraints, and numerical procedures of the aforementioned optimization techniques and then advances to sophisticated application of the techniques for optimum design of various structural systems. It is hoped that the practicing engineers can closely follow the developments of various methods and appropriately select them as the powerful design tool for their needs in order to achieve better design in the real construction world.
