ABSTRACT
Optimization is the act of obtaining the best results under the given circumstances. In design, construction, and maintenance of any engineering system, engineers have to take many technological and managerial decisions at several stages. Structural optimization has been traditionally classified into three families following the nature of the variables involved: design or sizing optimization, shape optimization and topological optimization. This chapter briefly summarizes a large number of methods to solve optimization problems. The methods include local search methods, global search methods, random search, approximation methods, clustering methods, and Tabu search. Evolutionary computation is a computational model inspired by the Darwinian theory of evolution. An artificial evolutionary system is a computational system predicated on the notion of simulated evolution. Swarm intelligence is often referred to as collective astuteness, which may also be defined as the quandary-solving behavior that instantaneously emerges from the interaction of individual agents that communicate with other agents by action of their local environments.
