Optimization Concepts and Applications in Engineering

Organizations and businesses strive toward excellence, and solutions to problems are based mostly on judgment and experience. However, increased competition and consumer demands require that the solutions be optimum and not just feasible. Theory leads to algorithms. Algorithms need to be translated into computer codes. Engineering problems need to be modeled. Optimum solutions are obtained using theory and computers, and then interpreted. Revised and expanded in its third edition, this textbook integrates theory, modeling, development of numerical methods, and problem solving, thus preparing students to apply optimization to real-world problems. This text covers a broad variety of optimization problems using: unconstrained, constrained, gradient, and non-gradient techniques; duality concepts; multi-objective optimization; linear, integer, geometric, and dynamic programming with applications; and finite element-based optimization. It is ideal for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in optimization design and for practicing engineers.

Ashok D. Belegundu has been a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University since 1986. Prior to this, he taught at Kettering University, Michigan. He received his B. Tech. from I.I.T. Madras and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He has been a principal investigator on research projects involving optimization for several agencies including the National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, NASA, SERC (UK), MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation, Gentex Corporation, and Ingersoll-Rand. He has organized two international conferences on optimization in industry and has authored or edited four books and written a chapter in a book. He has advised more than fifty graduate students. He has given short courses on finite elements and optimization to the Forging Industry Association, Hazleton Pumps, Infosys (India). He has served as an associate editor for AIAA Journal and for Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines. He teaches a distance education course on optimal design through Pennsylvania State University.

Tirupathi R. Chandrupatla has been a Professor and Founding Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University, New Jersey since 1995. He received his B.E. from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, his M.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and his Ph.D. from University of Texas, Austin. He started his career as a design engineer with Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), Bangalore and then taught at IIT. Professor Chandrupatla also taught at the University of Kentucky and Kettering University, before joining Rowan. In 2005, he received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award at Rowan University. He is also the author of Quality and Reliability in Engineering (Cambridge, 2009), and Introduction to Finite Elements in Engineering (2012). Professor Chandrupatla has broad research interests, which include design, optimization, manufacturing engineering, finite element analysis, and quality and reliability. He published widely in these areas and serves as a consultant to industry. Professor Chandrupatla is a registered Professional Engineer and also a Certified Manufacturing Engineer. He is a member of ASEE, ASME, SAE, and SME.