Minimax in Structural Design

Abstract

A method for designing a trussed type structure subject to stress and displacement constraints has been developed and applied to typical examples of structural optimization. The method is based on the transformation of a constrained minimization problem with homogeneous constraints into an unconstrained minimax formulation. The latter problem is then solved using the norm optimization method. Conceptually, the technique substitutes the constrained minimization problem by a sequence of unconstrained formulations. The method is simple to implement, and does not suffer from problems inherent to the more classical penalty approach. An implementation on wellknown examples emphasizes the main features of the method.