Optimum Design of Structures using Modified Bee Colony Algorithm

Artificial bee colony algorithm (ABCA) as one of swarm intelligence methods and finite element analysis are adopted for structural topology optimization. The objective is to obtain the stiffest structure with a certain amount of material based on the contributed strain energy of each element. A few examples of 2D structural models are provided to examine the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed algorithm comparing with the results of the solid isotropic microstructure with penalization (SIMP) method. The following conclusions are obtained that the modified ABCA is well able to handle optimization problems with a large number of design variables, it is found that the modified ABCA is robust and stable with the convergence criterion and it is found that the convergence rate of the modified ABCA is in average very faster than SIMP method in the presented examples