THE THEORY AND APPLICATION OF EVOLUTIONARYSTRUCTURAL OPTIMISATION METHOD

Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (ESO) is a simple and robust numerical method for optimization problems of various structures. The basic idea of ESO is that by slowly removing inefficient material, the residual structure evolves towards an optimum. The significance of ESO is its simplicity and generality. It can be used for a wide range of structures including trusses, frames,plates/shells and 3D continua. The optimization constraints can be stresses,stiffnesses/displacements, frequencies or buckling loads.This paper introduces the theories,procedures and the latest techniques of ESO. A number of examples of engineering design problems are presented to demonstrate the capability and effectiveness of ESO.