Constrained structural design optimization via a parallel augmented Lagrangian particle swarm optimization approach

This paper presents an extension to the basic particle swarm optimization approach for the solution of constrained engineering design optimization problems. The approach takes advantage of the PSO ability to find global optimum in problems with complex design spaces while directly enforcing feasibility of constraints using an augmented Lagrange multiplier method. Details in the algorithm implementation and properties are presented and the effectiveness of the approach is illustrated in different benchmark structural optimization test cases. Results show the ability of the proposed methodology to find better solutions for structural optimization tasks as compared to other optimization algorithms.