Objective vs. design iterations during PANDA2 optimization of the stiffened and sub-stiffened cylindrical shell under combined loads, Nx, Ny, Nxy, p

This is Fig. 2 from the 2005 substiff paper. This slide shows the objective (weight) during the first execution of SUPEROPT for the perfect shell. The case name is testax4p ("p" for "perfect").

Each “spike” in the curve corresponds to a new “starting” design obtained randomly by the PANDA2 processor called AUTOCHANGE. Five PANDAOPTs per AUTOCHANGE were specified by the PANDA2 user for the execution of SUPEROPT in this particular case.

SUPEROPT is used to find the "global" optimum design. The word, "global", is in quotes because PANDA2 cannot rigorously find the global optimum, but finds an optimum design the weight of which might be close to that of the global optimum because optimum designs are found starting from many different points in design space during a single execution of the PANDA2 processor, SUPEROPT.

There is a new PANDA2 processor called "SUPERDUPEROPT" which automatically executes the PANDA2 processor, SUPEROPT, many times in succession.

Page 20 / 49