• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2007

This paper addresses a method for shape optimization of a continuous elastic body considering stability, i.e., buckling behavior. The sensitivity formula for critical load is analytically derived and expressed in terms of shape variation, based on the continuum formulation of the stability problem. Unlike the conventional finite difference method (FDM), this method is efficient in that only a couple of analyses are required regardless of the number of design parameters. Commercial software such as ANSYS can be employed since the method requires only the result of the analysis in computation of the sensitivity. Though the buckling problem is more efficiently solved by structural elements such as a beam and shell, elastic solids have been chosen for the buckling analysis because solid elements can generally be used for any kind of structure whether it is thick or thin. Sensitivity is then computed by using the mathematical package MATLAB with the initial stress and buckling analysis of ANSYS. Several problems we chosen in order to illustrate the efficiency of the presented method. They are applied to the shape optimization problems to minimize weight under allowed critical loads and to maximize critical loads under same volume.