Review of Introduction to Optimum Design by Jasbir Arora: Elsevier Academic, San Diego, 2004. ISBN 0-12-064155-0.

This volume is the second edition of Introduction to Optimum Design by Jasbir Arora. It includes several revisions and additions. This edition is among the most comprehensive books available in the optimization approach to design. The author combines his many years of experience in structural optimization in a single volume covering nearly all aspects of optimum design. A new feature in this book is a discussion of such widely available software as Microsoft Excel and MATLAB in solving optimum design problems.

Chapter 1 covers the underlying concept of design. This review specifically points to the role of optimization in design and differences between conventional and optimum design. The chapter is especially important in clarifying why one should proceed with the optimization approach in a design process. Chapter 2 is devoted to the basic formulation. More specifically, it discusses establishing design criteria and identifying design attributes. This chapter provides a clear roadmap to assist in setting up a series of optimization goals and constraints in a given problem. Through simple examples, the author defines how a concept can be turned into mathematical formulations in an optimum design process. A reader who is a beginner will find this chapter especially helpful. Chapters 3–11 focus on various methods of optimization. The author starts with graphics solutions (Chapter 3) and continues with various methods, including Lagrange multipliers, definitions and the role of constraints, checking for the existence of the optimum solutions (Chapters 4 and 5), linear programming (Chapters 6 and 7), constrained and unconstrained optimum design, and numerical solutions (Chapters 8–11). The flow of information and presentation of various methods in these chapters is coherent and skillfully leads the reader from simple conceptual solutions to more-complicated mathematical solutions and eventually to those requiring numerical computations. These chapters provide a collection of design problems that introduce the reader to the realistic application of various methods. Exercise problems at the end of each chapter will provide ample opportunity to challenge students to use these methods in a variety of application problems.

Chapters 12 and 13 are exclusively devoted to the use of such available programs as MATLAB and other software in conducting an optimization technique by means of interactive systems. These chapters are especially helpful in introducing the user to the available functions in MATLAB to conduct optimum design applications and also provide enough materials on how to incorporate available programs in an interactive environment for optimum solutions. The remainder of the book covers several special subjects, such as optimum design using implicit functions (Chapter 14), discrete variable optimization methods, and mix-variable problems (Chapter 15), an introduction to the generic algorithm approach (Chapter 16), multiobjective optimization methods (Chapter 17), and the global optimization process (Chapter 18). Again, each chapter starts by introducing various methods and explains their applicability in the optimum design process followed by engineering applications.

A unique feature of this edition is an introductory remark at the beginning of each chapter to inform the reader what is contained in the chapter and the level of knowledge that he or she will have on completing the chapter. This information is especially helpful to students and instructors to determine whether the intended knowledge gain in each chapter is achieved.

The book also provides four supplementary chapters. Appendices A–C furnish the basic background on mathematical and economic solutions needed to understand the underlying optimum design concepts. Each of these supplementary chapters is very comprehensive and by itself provides practically all the background needed for optimization formulations and solutions. Appendix D gives sample computer codes for several programs that are used elsewhere in the book. These codes are in FORTRAN. It would have been more useful if this information had also been given in flowchart or language-free formats. With a language-free format, a reader can readily implement the process technique in a programming environment of his or her choice.

Overall, this book is well written and covers just about every topic that one needs to know about the optimum design process. It includes a good balance of theory and application. The book will therefore be appealing to all users. Potential users include students who are taking introductory or advanced courses in optimization, instructors who teach undergraduate and graduate courses in optimum design, and practitioners who may wish to apply optimization methods in those special applications where such methods can result in a sizable cost reduction.