OPTIMIZATION OF FGM SANDWICH BEAMS USING IMPERIALIST COMPETITIVE ALGORITHM

Sandwich structures are used in a variety of engineering applications including aircraft, construction and transportation where strong, stiff and light structures are required. Recently, the concept of Functionally Graded Materials (FGM) is being actively explored in sandwich structure design. Various material profiles through the thickness of FGM structures can be illustrated by using a generalization of the power-law distribution [1]. In the present work, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) that has recently been introduced by AtashpazGargary and Lucas [2] is implemented for dealing with different applications, such as FGM structures [3]. The main goal of this study is to optimize the material volume fraction in a FG sandwich beams to obtain the maximum natural frequency using ICA.