Thickness optimization of an elastic beam

MARÍA CRISTINA MACIEL; ELVIO A. PILOTTA; GRACIELA N. SOTTOSANTO

MAT-Serie A

Universidad Austral

Lugar: Rosario; Año: 2007 p. 13 - 23

1515-4904

An elastic  beam of variable thickness  subject to a  vertical load is considered in this work. Finding the thickness distribution minimizing the compliance of  the beam is the structural  optimization problem to be solved. Different types of support conditions for the beam are also included in the  analysis. The approach is based  on the Haslinger and Makinen formulation, although  the resulting optimization problem is solved in a different way. Finite  elements method is used to obtain a suitable discretized  problem. The  optimization problem is  solved by using  interior point methods  and trust-region  strategies. Numerical results are reported.