After successful completion of the course, students are able to apply mathematical optimization tools in structural mechanics and to name the limits of the individual methods in structural optimization. They have the ability to select appropriate methods and tools. Furthermore, they are able to design improvements to existing methods and to participate in their realization in suitably assembled teams.
Introduction, Review of mathematical optimization methods, Formulation of objective functions in structural mechanics, Formulation of constraint functions, penalty methods applied to structural problems, Evolutionary strategies and genetic algorithms, Response surface methods, adaptive strategies, Shape optimization, Stochastic aspects, robust optimization, parameter identification, mathematical surrogate models.
Lecture notes for this course can be downloaded.
J. Nocedal and S. J. Wright, Numerical Optimization, Springer, 2006.