Abstract
It is necessary to develop an efficient optimization technique to optimize the engineering structures which have given design spaces, discrete design values and several design goals. As optimization techniques, direct search method and stochastic search method are widely used in designing of engineering structures. The merit of the direct search method is to search the optimum points rapidly by considering the search direction, step size and convergence limit. And the merit of the stochastic search method is to obtain the global optimum points by spreading point randomly entire the design spaces. In this paper, a Pareto optimal based multi-objective function method (PMOFM) is developed by considering the search direction based on Pareto optimal points, step size, convergence limit and random search generation . The PMOFM can also apply to the single objective function problems, and can consider the discrete design variables such as discrete plate thickness and discrete stiffener spaces. The design results are compared with existing Evolutionary Strategies (ES) method by performing the design of double bottom structures which have discrete plate thickness and discrete stiffener spaces.