Performance of Six Metaheuristic Algorithms for Multi-Objective Optimization of Nonlinear Inelastic Steel Trusses

This paper presents a multi-objective optimization of steel trusses using direct analysis. The total weight and the inter-story drift or displacements of the structure were two conflict objectives, while the constraints relating to strength and serviceability load combinations were evaluated using nonlinear inelastic and nonlinear elastic analyses, respectively. Six common metaheuristic algorithms such as nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II), NSGA-III, generalized differential evolution (GDE3), PSO-based MOO using crowding, mutation, and ε-dominance (OMOPSO), improving the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2), and multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) were applied to solve the developed MOO problem. Four truss structures were studied including a planar 10-bar truss, a spatial 72-bar truss, a planar 47-bar powerline truss, and a planar 113-bar truss bridge. The numerical results showed a nonlinear relationship and inverse proportion between the two objectives. Furthermore, all six algorithms were efficient at finding feasible optimal solutions. No algorithm outperformed the others, but NSGA-II and MOEA/D seemed to be better at both searching Pareto and anchor points. MOEA/D was also more stable and yields a better solution spread. OMOPSO was also good at solution spread, but its stability was worse than MOEA/D. NSGA-III was less efficient at finding anchor points, although it can effectively search for Pareto points.