Box-Type Boom Design Using Surrogate Modeling: Introducing an Industrial Optimization Benchmark

Simulation-based optimization problems are often an inherent part in engineering design tasks. This paper introduces one such use case, the design of a box-type boom of a crane, which requires a time consuming structural analysis for validation. To overcome high runtimes for optimization approaches with numerous calls to the structural analysis tool, we here present several ways of approximating the structural analysis results using surrogate models. Results show a strong correlation between certain statics input and output parameters, and that various surrogate modeling approaches yield similar results in terms of accuracy and impact of the predictors on the output. The box-type boom use case together with the surrogate models shall serve as an industrial optimization benchmark for comparing various algorithms on this simulation-based optimization problem.