Volume :

2

Issue :

1

Abstract :

This paper describes a computational procedure of obtaining minimum weight design of pin-jointed plane frames using design variables that specify both the skeletal geometry and member sizes of the structure. The entire design space is decomposed into two subspaces—the geometric design space, and the member design space. The variables of the geometric design space contain the coordinates of the variable joints of the structure, while the variables of the member design space contain the cross sectional dimensions of the members. The optimal design vector of the geometric design space is found strictly by the mathematical programming technique, and the complementary part of the design vector in the member design space is found by the fully-stressed optimality criterion. To validate the applicability and proficiency of the proposed procedure a numerical problem has been optimized and the results are compared with the previous results available in the literature. The study demonstrates that the developed algorithm is capable of finding near-optimal design in a some what robust and efficient manner.