Particle swarm approach for structural optimization of battleship strength deck under air blast

This paper presents the implementation and application of a modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) method with dynamic adaption for optimum design of a battleship strength deck subjected to non-contact explosion. The numerical simulation process is modified to be more computationally efficient so that the task is realizable. The input variables are the thickness of plates and the dimensions of stiffeners, and the total structural mass is chosen as the fitness value. In another case, the response surface method (RSM) is introduced and combined with PSO (PSO-RSM), and the results are compared with those obtained by the traditional PSO approach. It is indicated that the PSO method can be well applied in the optimum design of explosion-loaded deck structures and the PSO-RSM methodology can rapidly yield optimum designs with sufficient accuracy. © 2014 Shanghai Jiaotong University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.