This study is devoted to discrete sizing optimization of truss structures employing an efficient discrete evolutionary meta-heuristic algorithm which uses the Newton gradient-based method as its updating scheme and it is named here as Newton Meta-heuristic Algorithm (NMA). In order to enable the NMA population-based meta-heuristic to effectively explore the discrete design space, a term containing the best solution found is added to the basic updating rule of the algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed NMA metaheuristic is illustrated by presenting five benchmark discrete truss optimization problems and comparing the results with literature. The numerical results demonstrate that the NMA is a robust and powerful meta-heuristic algorithm for dealing with the discrete sizing optimization problems of steel trusses.

Keywords: Discrete optimization, Sizing optimization, Truss structures, Meta-heuristic, PSO.

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