Optimization of laminated composites plates using glowworm algorithm

In this paper, the authors propose the use of the Glowworm Swarm Optimization algorithm, GSO, a recently proposed algorithm for the simultaneous computation of multiple optima of multimodal functions, on a real world problem of structural engineering, the com posite laminates buckling load maximization. The function to be optimized is multi-modal, and thus the exploration ability of GSO allows the attainment of a better comprehension of function landscape and also allows the designer to select alternative solutions that could be considered better when all the constraints present in the real world application, not easily represented in the theorical optimization problem, are taken into account