Efficient force method for the analysis of finite element models comprising of triangular elements using ant colony optimization

An efficient algorithm is presented for the formation of null basis of triangular plane stress and plane strain finite element models, corresponding to highly sparse flexibility matrices. This is achieved by applying a modified ant colony system (ACS). An integer linear programming formulation is also presented to evaluate the quality of the results obtained by the proposed ant colony system algorithm. The efficiency of the present algorithm is illustrated through some examples.