A practical quantum algorithm for solving structural optimization problems
a proof-of-concept!
J. de Zoete (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
B. Chen – Mentor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
M. Möller – Mentor (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
M.I. Gerritsma – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
S. van der Zwaag – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
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Abstract
The aerospace engineering industry is continuously striving for faster methods to solve and optimize engineering and research problems with a higher degree of accuracy. It is therefore relevant to investigate possibilities that are expected to accelerate computational speed, such as quantum computing. For this reason, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of optimizing 2D determinate truss structures with a quantum algorithm run on a Gate-Based Quantum Computer (GBQC). The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is currently expected to be the most suitable quantum algorithm candidate for optimization problems, because of its simplicity and robustness. The most important take-away from this thesis is that it is possible to map a truss structure to QAOA format to optimize it on a GBQC. The program proves to be working on quantum virtual machines. However, it is currently not possible to obtain correct results when running on real quantum hardware due to noise.