On efficient use of simulated annealing in complex structural optimization problems

The paper is concerned with the efficient use of simulated annealing (SA) in structural optimization problems of high complexity. A reformulation of the working mechanism of the Boltzmann parameter is introduced to accelerate and enhance the general productivity of SA in terms of convergence reliability. Two general and complementary parameters, referred as “weighted Boltzmann parameter” and “critical Boltzmann parameter”, are proposed. Several alternative methodologies are suggested for these two parameters. Numerical applications are presented to test the performance of the proposed techniques, and the results are compared with those that exist in the literature.