The importance of optimization has been constantly increasing in today’s world due to limitations in available resources and increases in human population. Engineers always strive to design efficient structural systems which must be as economical as possible yet strong enough to withstand the most demanding functional requirements arising during their service life. The traditional trial and error structural approach is very often not sufficient to achieve designs satisfying economical and safety criteria simultaneously.

This book presents efficient metaheuristic algorithms for optimal design of structures, many of which have been developed by the author and his students. They are augmented by further metaheuristics developed by other authors and have been successfully applied to various optimization problems in the field.

The concepts and algorithms presented in this book are not only applicable to the optimization of skeletal structures and finite element models, but equally can be utilized for optimal design of other systems in hydraulic engineering, transportation, mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering and electrical engineering.

In this present updated third edition, five new chapters have been added covering new developments in the field of optimization.