Sizing steel truss structures using grey wolf optimizer

Abstract

The paper introduces a new technique for the structural optimization of steel truss structures. This new technique was based on the combination of an effective optimization algorithm named Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) and the process of model updating to minimize the objective function. This process would be repeated continuously until the objective function reaches the convergence value. To prove the effectiveness of the optimization algorithm introduced, five benchmark functions were employed as the first example to evaluate the ability to find the global optimal. Then, a steel truss structure including 25 bar truss and 10 nodes were used to verify the proposed method. The objective function for the optimization problem was established based on the conditions of stress in each truss bar and the displacement at each node, which were not  exceeded the limitation values.