• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.159-167
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• 2000

In optimization problems, computationally intensive or expensive simulations hinder the use of standard optimization techniques because the computational expense is too heavy to implement them at each iteration of the optimization algorithm. Therefore, those expensive simulations are often replaced with approximation models which can be evaluated nearly free. However, because of the limited accuracy of the approximation models, it is practically impossible to find an exact optimal point of the original problem. Significant efforts have been made to overcome this problem. The approximation models are sequentially updated during the iterative optimization process such that interesting design points are included. The interesting points have a strong influence on making the approximation model capture an overall trend of the original function or improving the accuracy of the approximation in the vicinity of a minimizer. They are successively determined at each iteration by utilizing the predictive ability of the approximation model. This paper will focuses on those approaches and introduces various approximation methods.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.117-124
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• 2011

Tire's performance plays important roles in improving vehicle's performances. Tire makers carry out a lot of research to improve tire's performance. They are making effort to meet multi purposes using various optimization methods. Recently, the tire makers perform the shape optimization using approximation models, which are surrogate models obtained by statistical method. Generally, the reason why we increase sampling points during optimization process, is to get more reliable approximation models, but the more we adopt sampling points, the more we need time to test. So it is important to select approximation model and proper number of sampling points to balance between reliability and time consuming. In this research, we studied to compare two kind cases for a approximation construction. First, we compare RSM and Kriging which are Curve Fitting Method and Interpolation Method, respectively. Second, we construct approximation models using three different number of sampling points. And then, we recommend proper approximation model and orthogonal array adopt tire's design optimization.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1218-1228
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• 1997

The move limit strategy is used to avoid the excessive approximation in the structural optimization. The size of move limit has been obtained by engineering experience. Recently, efforts based on analytic methods are performed by some researchers. These methods still have problems, such as prematurity or oscillation of the move limit size. The existing methods usually control the bound of design variables based on the magnitude. Thus, they can not properly handle the configuration variables based on the geometry in the configuration optimization. In this research, the size of move limit is calculated based on the accuracy of approximation. The method is coded and applied to the two-point reciprocal quadratic approximation method. The efficiency is evaluated through examples.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1041-1049
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• 2003

In this paper, a new local two-point approximation method which is based on the exponential intervening variable is proposed. This new algorithm, called the Two-Point Convex Approximation(TPCA), use the function and design sensitivity information from the current and previous design points of the sequential approximate optimization to generate a sequence of convex, separable subproblems. This paper describes the derivation of the parameters associated with the approximation and the numerical solution procedure. In order to show the numerical performance of the proposed method, a sequential approximate optimizer is developed and applied to solve several typical design problems. These optimization results are compared with those of other optimizers. Numerical results obtained from the test examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.37 no.E
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• pp.31-39
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• 1995

Weight minimization for the steel bridge girders using an approximation based optimization technique is presented. To accomplish this, an optimization oriented finite element program is used to achieve continuous weight reduction until the optimum is reached. To reduce computational cost, approximation techniques are adopted during the optimization process. Constraint deletion as well as intermediate design variables and responses are also used for higher qualitv of approximations and for a better convergence rate. Both the reliability and the effectiveness of the underlying optimization method are reviewed.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.1257-1267
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• 2001

For efficient mechanical system optimization, a new two-point approximation method is presented. Unlike the conventional two-point approximation methods such as TPEA, TANA, TANA-1, TANA-2 and TANA-3, this introduces the shifting level into each exponential intervening variable to avoid the lack of definition of the conventional exponential intervening variables due to zero-or negative-valued design variables. Then a new quadratic approximation whose Hessian matrix has only diagonal elements of different values is proposed in terms of these shifted exponential intervening variables. These diagonal elements are determined in a closed form that corrects the typical error in the approximate gradient of the TANA series due to the lack of definition of exponential type intervening variables and their incomplete second-order terms. Also, a correction coefficient is multiplied to the pre-determined quadratic term to match the value of approximate function with that of the previous point. Finally, in order to show the numerical performance of the proposed method, a sequential approximate optimizer is developed and applied to solve six typical design problems. These optimization results are compared with those of TANA-3. These comparisons show that the proposed method gives more efficient and reliable results than TANA-3.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.271-278
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• 2002

Structural optimization using improved higer-order convex approximation is proposed in this paper. The proposed method is a generalization of the convex approximation method. The order of the approximation function for each constraint is automatically adjusted in the optimization process. And also the order of each design variable is differently adjusted. This self-adjusted capability makes the approximate constraint values conservative enough to maintain the optimum design point of the approximate problem in feasible region. The efficiency of proposed algorithm, compared with conventional algorithm is successfully demonstrated in the Three-bar Truss example.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.41-60
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• 2004

Ship design process requires lots of complicated analyses for determining a large number of design variables. Due to its complexity, the process is divided into several tractable designs or analysis problems. The interdependent relationship requires repetitive works. This paper employs collaborative optimization (CO), one of the multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) techniques, for treating such complex relationship. CO guarantees disciplinary autonomy while maintaining interdisciplinary compatibility due to its bi-level optimization structure. However, the considerably increased computational time and the slow convergence have been reported as its drawbacks. This paper proposes the use of an approximation model in place of the disciplinary optimization in the system-level optimization. Neural network classification is employed as a classifier to determine whether a design point is feasible or not. Kriging is also combined with the classification to make up for the weakness that the classification cannot estimate the degree of infeasibility. For the purpose of enhancing the accuracy of a predicted optimum and reducing the required number of disciplinary optimizations, an approximation management framework is also employed in the system-level optimization.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.6
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• pp.799-821
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• 2020

The optimum design of truss structures is one of the significant categories in structural optimization that has widely been applied by researchers. In the present study, new mathematical programming called Consistent Approximation (CONAP) method is utilized for the simultaneous optimization of the size and shape of truss structures. The CONAP algorithm has already been introduced to optimize some structures and functions. In the CONAP algorithm, some important parameters are designed by employing design sensitivities to enhance the capability of the method and its consistency in various optimum design problems, especially structural optimization. The cross-sectional area of the bar elements and the nodal coordinates of the truss are assumed to be the size and shape design variables, respectively. The displacement, allowable stress and the Euler buckling stress are taken as the design constraints for the problem. In the proposed method, the primary optimization problem is replaced with a sequence of explicit sub-problems. Each sub-problem is efficiently solved using the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm. Several truss structures are designed by employing the CONAP method to illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm for simultaneous shape and size optimization. The optimal solutions are compared with some of the mathematical programming algorithms, the approximation methods and metaheuristic algorithms those reported in the literature. Results demonstrate that the accuracy of the optimization is improved and the convergence rate speeds up.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2011

We present a new dual sequential approximate optimization (SAO) algorithm called SD-TDQAO (sequential dual two-point diagonal quadratic approximate optimization). This algorithm solves engineering optimization problems with a nonlinear objective and nonlinear inequality constraints. The two-point diagonal quadratic approximation (TDQA) was originally non-convex and inseparable quadratic approximation in the primal design variable space. To use the dual method, SD-TDQAO uses diagonal quadratic explicit separable approximation; this can easily ensure convexity and separability. An important feature is that the second-derivative terms of the quadratic approximation are approximated by TDQA, which uses only information on the function and the derivative values at two consecutive iteration points. The algorithm will be illustrated using mathematical and topological test problems, and its performance will be compared with that of the MMA algorithm.