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Effective use of numerical optimization in structural design. (English) Zbl 0697.73069

Summary: Numerical optimization applied to structural design, has past its twenty- fifth year of development and is now recognized as a powerful and practical design tool. The only impediments to its expanded development and application appear to be a lack of general kowledge of optimization by the engineering community and the incorporation of this capability into commercial available structure analysis codes.
Here, the concepts of numerical optimization will first be outlined to provide a common basis for discussion. Next, the features of finite element structural analysis, that make it uniquely suited for integration with optimization will be described. An understanding of both optimization and finite element analysis leads to the observation that there are several effective ways to couple the two technologies. The various approaches to coupling analysis and optimization will be discussed and it will be shown that, from the engineer’s point of view, each is effective for its own reasons, depending on the resources available and the desired results. Examples are offered to demonstrate the power and generality of these methods. It is concluded that numerical optimization is a technology whose time has come.

MSC:

74P99 Optimization problems in solid mechanics
74S05 Finite element methods applied to problems in solid mechanics

Software:

ANSYS
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