Recent developments in evolutionary structural optimization (ESO) for continuum structures

Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO) and its later version bi-directional ESO (BESO) have gained widespread popularity among researchers in structural optimization and practitioners in engineering and architecture. However, there have also been many critical comments on various aspects of ESO/BESO. To address those criticisms, we have carried out extensive work to improve the original ESO/BESO algorithms in recent years. This paper summarizes some of the latest developments in the BESO method for topology optimization of continuum structures. Numerical results show that the ESO/BESO solutions agree well with those of other well-established topology optimization methods. It indicates that the current BESO method has great potential to become a robust and efficient design tool for practical applications in engineering and architecture.