The Research Of Genetic Algorithm And Its Application In Engineering Structural Optimization

Optimization method is one kind of new science and technology. It has been applied in various realms of engineering design. In any design of engineering, good performance and high carrying capacity are wanted by choosing a reasonable scheme or confirming parameters according to the requests of design. A new subject named structural optimization design been formed when combined with structural design and computer techniques.Genetic Algorithm(GA) is one of the main directions in today's computer science. Its application in structural optimization catch more and more attentions. Compared with traditional optimization methods, Genetic Algorithm has two notable characters. One is the latent parallelism and the other is searching in the whole area. Genetic Algorithm has some advantages which traditional methods don't have. For example, with Genetic Algorithm we don't need the calculation of grades. Nevertheless, Genetic Algorithm is a relatively new subject, it has not been perfect either in theory or realizing techniques. So Genetic Algorithm needs to be researched and improved continually in order to meet the needs of engineering.Some essential aspects of Genetic Algorithm and structural optimization are discussed in this paper. The basic structure of GA and its main characteristics are introduced. GA's algorithm structure design and arithmetic operators' designs are presented when applied to optimal design. In shis paper, the characteristics of structural optimization and its actualities are introduced. Some basic rules about GA's algorithm structure design and arithmetic operators' designs are proposed. Regard to the disposed of constraints, the extreme penalization functions are employed. The genetic operator is improved and used to the optimization of a frame structure. A comparison is made with other optimal algorithms.