The main objective of this research is to employ Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) to determine the optimum condition for an FG cylindrical shell with outer piezoelectric layer. Design parameters in this problem are thickness and volume fraction of the material. The shell is subjected to outer radial moving load and internal pressurized fluid. To formulate the problem, First Order Shear Deformation theory and Maxwell’s equation have been combined to develop governing equations and by solving these equations using analytical-numerical methods, the dynamic deformation has been obtained. Then, by adopting displacement-strain and stress-strain relationships, distribution of the dynamic stresses within the shell has been calculated. Due to the moving of the external load, the use of dynamic analysis is necessary so that the dynamic and transient response is significant comparing with the static one. To validate the dynamic analysis, the results are compared with those provided in the literature based on other solution methods or experimental measurements. Finally, a computer code has been developed to link the dynamic solution method with the optimization algorithm based on ICA to obtain the optimum values of the design parameters. The major advantage of this method is using control points along the thickness to define volume fraction rather than using predefined functions which usually impose unnecessary restriction. The volume fraction between these control points is obtained by Hermite interpolation method. The results show the efficiency of the method and its major strength which is the flexibility and higher convergence rate to determine the optimum configuration.

Keywords: Imperialist Competitive Algorithm, Cylindrical shell, Functionally Graded Materials, Moving Load, Control Point Method

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