• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.543-560
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• 2011

In structural engineering there are randomness inherently exist on determination of the loads, strength, geometry, and so on, and the manufacturing of the structural members, workmanship etc. Thus, objective and constraint functions of the optimization problem are functions that depend on those randomly natured components. The constraints being the function of the random variables are evaluated by using reliability index or performance measure approaches in the optimization process. In this study, the minimum weight of a space truss is obtained under the uncertainties on the load, material and cross-section areas with harmony search using reliability index and performance measure approaches. Consequently, optimization algorithm produces the same result when both the approaches converge. Performance measure approach, however, is more efficient compare to reliability index approach in terms of the convergence rate and iterations needed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.174-185
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• 2002

The automotive industry faces many competitive challenges including weight and cost reduction to meet need for higher fuel economy. Tailored blanks offer the opportunity to decrease door weight, reduce manufacturing costs, and improve door stiffness. Optimization technology is applied to the inner panel of a door which is made by tailored blanks. The design of tailored blanks door starts from an existing door. At first, the hinge reinforcement and inner reinforcement are removed to use tailored blanks technology. The number of parts and the welding lines are determined from intuitions and the structural analysis results of the existing door. Size optimization is carried out to find thickness while the stiffness constraints are satisfied. The door hinge system is optimized using design of experiment approach. A commercial optimization software MSC/NASTRAN is utilized for the structural analysis and the optimization processes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.267-280
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• 2022

Multiscale structure has attracted significant interest due to its high stiffness/strength to weight ratios and multifunctional performance. However, most of the existing concurrent topology optimization works are carried out under deterministic load conditions. Hence, this paper proposes a robust concurrent topology optimization method based on the bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method for the design of structures composed of periodic microstructures subjected to uncertain dynamic loads. The robust objective function is defined as the weighted sum of the mean and standard deviation of the module of dynamic structural compliance with constraints are imposed to both macro- and microscale structure volume fractions. The polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) method is used to quantify and propagate load uncertainty to evaluate the objective function. The effective properties of microstructure is evaluated by the numerical homogenization method. To release the computation burden, the decoupled sensitivity analysis method is proposed for microscale design variables. The proposed method is a non-intrusive method, and it can be conveniently extended to many topology optimization problems with other distributions. Several numerical examples are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed robust concurrent topology optimization method.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.315-320
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• 2007

An effective reinforcement method for steel tubular joints having a large chord diameter is the use of internal ring stiffeners. This paper presents the results of a numerical study on the static strength of internally ring-stiffened tubular X- and T-joints subjected to brace axial compression loading. Nonlinear finite element analyses are used to compute the joint strength. The influence of geometrical parameters has been studied and the maximum reinforcement effect of a ring stiffener has been evaluated. A strength ratio is defined. by the ratio of ring-stiffened joint strength to unstiffened joint strength, and an equation for this strength ratio is derived by regression analysis. Design optimization for ring stiffener of tubular joints is carried out using metropolis genetic algorithm.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.124-126
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• 2009

Energy savings can be achieved with optimum energy consumptions, brake energy regeneration, efficient energy storage (onboard, line side), and primarily with light weight vehicles. Over the last few years, the rolling stock industry has experienced a marked increase in eco-awareness and needs for lower life cycle energy consumption costs. For rolling stock vehicle designers and engineers, weight has always been a critical design parameter. It is often specified directly or indirectly as contractual requirements. These requirements are usually expressed in terms of specified axle load limits, braking deceleration levels and/or demands for optimum energy consumptions. The contractual requirements for lower weights are becoming increasingly more stringent. Light weight vehicles with optimized strength to weight ratios are achievable through proven design processes. The primary driving processes consist of: $\bullet$ material selection to best contribute to the intended functionality and performance $\bullet$ design and design optimization to secure the intended functionality and performance $\bullet$ weight control processes to deliver the intended functionality and performance Aluminium has become the material of choice for modern light weight bodyshells. Steel sub-structures and in particular high strength steels are also used where high strength - high elongation characteristics out way the use of aluminium. With the improved characteristics and responses of composites against tire and smoke, small and large composite materials made components are also found in greater quantities in today's railway vehicles. Full scale hybrid composite rolling stock vehicles are being developed and tested. While an "overdesigned" bodyshell may be deemed as acceptable from a structural point of view, it can, in reality, be a weight saving missed opportunity. The conventional pass/fail structural criteria and existing passenger payload definitions promote conservative designs but they do not necessarily imply optimum lightweight designs. The weight to strength design optimization should be a fundamental design driving factor rather than a feeble post design activity. It should be more than a belated attempt to mitigate against contractual weight penalties. The weight control process must be rigorous, responsible, with achievable goals and above all must be integral to the design process. It should not be a mere tabulation of weights for the sole-purpose of predicting the axle loads and wheel balances compliance. The present paper explores and discusses the topics quoted above with a view to strengthen the recommendations and needs for the weight optimization by design approach as a pro-active design activity for the rolling stock industry at large.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.591-599
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• 1994

A design system for power transmission bevel gears(straight, zerol, and spiral) is developed, in which the strength and durability of bevel gears can be estimated and the size of bevel gears can be minimized by introducing optimal techniques. The size of bevel gear pair as the object function to be minimized is the volume of equivalent spur gear pair at mean normal section, and the design variables to be determined are considered as the number of teeth, face width, diametral pitch, and spiral angle in spiral bevel gear. The strength(bending strength, pitting resistance) according to the AGMA standards, geometrical quantities, and operating characteristics(interference of pinion, contact ratio, etc.) are considered as the constraints in design optimization. The optimization with these constraints becomes nonlinear problem and that is solved with ALM(Augmented Lagrange Multiplier) method. The developed design method is applied to the example designs of straight, zerol, and spiral bevel gears. The design results are acceptable from the viewpoint of strength and durability within the design ranges of all other constraint, and the bevel gears are designed toward minimizing the size of gear pair. This design method is easily applicable to the design of bevel gears used as power transmitting devices in machineries, and is expected to be used for weight minimization of bevel gear unit.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.393-407
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• 2022

Due to the enormous cement content, pozzolanic materials, and the use of different aggregates, sustainable controlled low-strength material (CLSM) has a higher material cost than conventional concrete and sustainable construction issues. However, by selecting appropriate materials and formulations, as well as cement and aggregate content, whitethorn costs can be reduced while having a positive environmental impact. This research explores the desire to optimize plastic properties and 28-day unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of CLSM containing powder content from unprocessed-fly ash (u-FA) and recycled fine aggregate (RFA). The mixtures' input parameters consist of water-to-cementitious material ratio (W/CM), fly ash-to-cementitious materials (FA/CM), and paste volume percentage (PV%), while flowability, bleeding, segregation index, and 28-day UCS were the desired responses. The central composite design (CCD) notion was used to produce twenty CLSM mixes and was experimentally validated using MATLAB by an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Variance analysis (ANOVA) was used for the determination of statistical models. Results revealed that the plastic properties of CLSM improve with the FA/CM rise when the strength declines for 28 days-with an increase in FA/CM, the diameter of the flowability and bleeding decreased. Meanwhile, the u-FA's rise strengthens the CLSM's segregation resistance and raises its strength over 28 days. Using calcareous powder as a substitute for cement has a detrimental effect on bleeding, and 28-day UCS increases segregation resistance. The response surface method (RSM) can establish high correlations between responses and the constituent materials of sustainable CLSM, and the optimal values of variables can be measured to achieve the desired response properties.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.149-163
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• 2023

One of the main design parameters traditionally utilized in projects of geotechnical engineering is the uniaxial compressive strength. The present paper employed three artificial intelligence methods, i.e., the stochastic fractal search (SFS), the multi-verse optimization (MVO), and the vortex search algorithm (VSA), in order to determine the compressive strength of concrete (CSC). For the same reason, 1030 concrete specimens were subjected to compressive strength tests. According to the obtained laboratory results, the fly ash, cement, water, slag, coarse aggregates, fine aggregates, and SP were subjected to tests as the input parameters of the model in order to decide the optimum input configuration for the estimation of the compressive strength. The performance was evaluated by employing three criteria, i.e., the root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and the determination coefficient (R²). The evaluation of the error criteria and the determination coefficient obtained from the above three techniques indicates that the SFS-MLP technique outperformed the MVO-MLP and VSA-MLP methods. The developed artificial neural network models exhibit higher amounts of errors and lower correlation coefficients in comparison with other models. Nonetheless, the use of the stochastic fractal search algorithm has resulted in considerable enhancement in precision and accuracy of the evaluations conducted through the artificial neural network and has enhanced its performance. According to the results, the utilized SFS-MLP technique showed a better performance in the estimation of the compressive strength of concrete (R²=0.99932 and 0.99942, and RMSE=0.32611 and 0.24922). The novelty of our study is the use of a large dataset composed of 1030 entries and optimization of the learning scheme of the neural prediction model via a data distribution of a 20:80 testing-to-training ratio.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-70
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• 2007

This paper presents a analysis of the problem of optimal design of the beams with two I-type cross section shapes. These types of beams are simply supported and subject to pure bending. The strength and stability conditions were formulated and analytically solved in the form of mathematical equations. Both global and selected types of local stability forms were taken into account. The optimization problem was defined as bicriteria. The cross section area of the beam is the first objective function, while the deflection of the beam is the second. The geometric parameters of cross section were selected as the design variables. The set of constraints includes global and local stability conditions, the strength condition, and technological and constructional requirements in the form of geometric relations. The optimization problem was formulated and solved with the help of the Pareto concept of optimality. During the numerical calculations a set of optimal compromise solutions was generated. The numerical procedures include discrete and continuous sets of the design variables. Results of numerical analysis are presented in the form of tables, cross section outlines and diagrams. Results are discussed at the end of the work. These results may be useful for designers in optimal designing of thin-walled beams, increasing information required in the decision-making procedure.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.4042-4059
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• 2020

The development of new multimedia techniques such as 3D printing is increasingly attracting the public's attention towards 3D objects. An optimized robust and imperceptible watermarking method based on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Weber Law is proposed for 3D polygonal models. The proposed approach partitions the host model into smaller sub meshes and generates a secret watermark from the sub meshes using Weber Law. ACO based optimized strength factor is identified for embedding the watermark. The secret watermark is embedded and extracted on the wavelet domain. The proposed scheme is robust against geometric and photometric attacks that overcomes the synchronization problem and authenticates the secret watermark from the distorted models. The primary characteristic of the proposed system is the flexibility achieved in data embedding capacity due to the optimized strength factor. Extensive simulation results shows enhanced performance of the recommended framework and robustness towards the most common attacks like geometric transformations, noise, cropping, mesh smoothening, and the combination of such attacks.