• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.723-738
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• 2014

Prestressing is the most commonly employed technique in bridges and long span beams in commercial buildings as prestressing results in slender section with higher load carrying capacities. This work is an attempt to study the performance of a minimum weight prestressed concrete beam adopting a non-prismatic section so that there will be a reduction in the volume of concrete which in turn reduces the self-weight of the structure. The effect of adopting a non-prismatic section on parameters like prestressing force, area of prestressing steel, bending stresses, shear stresses and percentage loss of prestress are established theoretically. The analysis of non-prismatic prestressed beams is based on the assumption of pure bending theory. Equations are derived for dead load bending moment, eccentricity, and depth at any required section. Based on these equations an algorithm is developed which does the stress checks for the given section for every 500 mm interval of the span. Limit state method is used for the design of beam and finite difference method is used for finding out the deflection of a non-prismatic beam. All the parameters of nonprismatic prestressed concrete beams are compared with that of the rectangular prestressed concrete members and observed that minimum weight design and economical design are not same. Minimum weight design results in the increase in required area of prestressing steel.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.169-180
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• 2000

An optimization procedure has been prescribed for the minimum weight design of symmetrical parabolic arches subjected to arbitrary loading. The cross section is assumed to be a symmetrical box section with variable depth and flange areas. The webs are unstiffened and have constant thickness. The proposed sequential, iterative search technique determines the optimum geometrical configuration of the parabolic arch which includes the optimum depth profile and the optimum lengths and areas of the required flange plates corresponding to the prescribed number of curtailments. The study shows that the optimum value of rise to span ratio (h/L) of a parabolic arch is maximum at 0.41 for uniformly distributed loading over the entire span. For any other loading, the optimum value of h/L is less than 0.41.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.253-262
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• 2007

A methodology to design symmetrically laminated fibre-reinforced structures under transverse loads for minimum weight, with manufacturing uncertainty in the ply angle, is described. The ply angle and the ply thickness are the design variables, and the Tsai-Wu failure criteria is the design constraint implemented. It is assumed that the probability of any tolerance value occurring within the tolerance band, compared with any other, is equal, and thus the approach is a worst-case scenario approach. The finite element method, based on Mindlin plate and shell theory, is implemented, and thus effects like bending-twisting coupling are accounted for. The Golden Section method is used as the search algorithm, but the methodology is flexible enough to allow any appropriate finite element formulation, search algorithm and failure criterion to be substituted. In order to demonstrate the procedure, laminated plates with varying aspect ratios and boundary conditions are optimally designed and compared.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.103-107
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• 2001

This study is simulation about buckling behavior under axial compression which is cylindrical panel laminated USN125 and USN150 made by various winding angle. And also this study compare with linear and nonlinear FDEM theory, and FEM theory. To solve the objective function and the design variables, this study use the linear and nonlinear buckling theories or FDEM and nonlinear search optimum design method of ADS for minimum weight design on which stiffened laminated composite cylindrical panel with stiffener that R-type section.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1993.04a
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• pp.135-140
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• 1993

The optimum weight design of structure is to determine the combination of structural members which minimize the weight of structures and satisfy design conditions as well. Since most of loads and design variables considered in structural design have uncertain natures, the reliability-based optimization techniques need to be developed. The aim of this study is to estabilish the general algorithm for the minimum weight design of transmission tower structure system with reliability constraints. The sequential linear programming method is used to solve non-linear minimization problems, which converts original non-linear programming problems to sequential linear programming problems. The optimal solutions are produced for various reliability levels such as reliability levels inherent in current standard transmission tower cross-section and optimal transmission tower cross-section obtained with constraints of current design criteria as well as selected target reliability index. The optimal transmission towers satisfying reliability constraints sustain consistent reliability levels on all members. Consequently, more balanced optimum designs are accomplished with less structural weight than traditional designs dealing with deterministic design criteria.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-52
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• 2003

A computer program has been developed for the optimum design of prestressed concrete beams under flexure. Optimum values of prestressing force, tendon configuration, and cross-sectional dimensions are determined subject to constraints on the design variables and stresses. 28 constraints have been used including flexural stresses, cover requirement, the aspect ratios for top and bottom flanges and web part of a beam and ultimate moment. The objective function contains cost of concrete, prestressing force and formwork. Using this function, it is possible to obtain minimum cost design, minimum weight or cross-sectional area of concrete design and minimum prestressing force design. Besides the idealized I-shaped cross-section, which is widely used in literature, a general I-shaped cross-section with eight geometrical design variables are used here. Four examples, one of which is available in the literature and the others are modified form of it, have been solved for minimum cost and minimum cross-sectional area designs and the results are compared. The computer program, which employs modified grid search optimization method, can assist a designer in producing efficient designs rapidly and easily. Considerable savings in computational work are thus made possible.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.92-99
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• 2006

Design capability for high safety vehicle with light weight is crucial to enhancing competitive power in vehicle market. The structural foam can contribute to restraining section distortion in body members undergoing bending collapse at vehicle crash. In this study, first, the validation of analysis model including structural foam model for simulating fracture behavior was discussed, and the bending collapse characteristics of five representative section types were analyzed and compared. Next, with changing the laminate foam shape, load carrying capability and absorbed energy were observed. The results suggests a design strategy of body members filled with laminate foam, leading to effectively elevating bending collapse characteristics with weight increase in the minimum.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.217-222
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• 2010

Since 1980's, optimum design techniques for ship structural design have been developed to the preliminary design which aims at minimum weight or minimum cost design of mid-ship section based on analytic structural analysis. But the optimum structural design researches about the application for the detail design of local structure based on FEA have been still insufficient. This paper presents optimization technique for the detail design of a racing motor boat. To improve the performance and reduce the damage of a real existing racing boat, direct structural analyses; static and non-linear transient dynamic analyses, were carried out to check the constraints of minimum weight design. As a result, it is shown that the optimum structural design of a racing boat has to be focused on reducing impulse response from pitching motion than static response because the dynamic effect is more dominant. Optimum design algorithm based on nonlinear finite element analysis for a racing motor boat was developed and coded to ANSYS, and its applicability for actual structural design was verifed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.133-139
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• 2000

Vibrational characteristics of the vehicle structure are mainly influenced by the shape of the pillar cross section. In this paper a vehicle structural optimization technique has been developed to investigate a lightweight vehicle structure subject to constraints on natural frequencies in a simple beam-and-shell model. In this technique, the optimization procedures involve two stages. In the first stage, the section procedures involve tow stages. In the first stage, the section properties of beam elements of the vehicle structure has been optimized to have minimum weight while satisfying the constraints of natural frequencies. And, in the second stage, the shape of the cross section of the elements of the structure has been determined.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2011

In this study, micro genetic algorithm is used to find an optimum cross section of grid structures with pretension. Design optimization of trusses consists of arriving at optimum sizes of cross-section and prestressing force parameters, when weight of the truss is minimum, satisfying a set of specified constraints. The present approach is verified by ten-bar truss example showing good agreements with previous results. Features of the proposed method, which help in modeling and application to optimal design of pretensioned truss structures, are demonstrated by solving a problem of seventy two bar truss structures. The minimum weight design of seventy two bar truss is performed for various magnitudes of pretension and optimal prestressing forces are also found for various configurations of pretensioned truss structures.