Robust Penalty Method for Structural Synthesis
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 109, Issue 4
Abstract
The Sequential Unconstrained Minimization Technique (SUMT) offers an easy way of solving nonlinearly constrained problems. However, this algorithm frequently suffers from the need to minimize an ill‐conditioned penalty function. An ill‐conditioned minimization problem can be solved very effectively by posing the problem as one of integrating a system of stiff differential equations utilizing concepts from singular perturbation theory. This paper evaluates the robustness and the reliability of such a singular perturbation based SUMT algorithm on two different problems of structural optimization of widely separated scales. The report concludes that whereas conventional SUMT can be bogged down by frequent ill‐conditioning, especially in large scale problems, the singular perturbation SUMT has no such difficulty in converging to very accurate solutions.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 109 • Issue 4 • August 1983
Pages: 1023 - 1041
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 ASCE.
History
Published online: Aug 1, 1983
Published in print: Aug 1983
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