• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.121-131
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• 1996

This work proposes an optimality criteria applicable to the optimum design of plane frames subject to multiple behavioral constraints on member stresses and lateral displacements of nodes and also to side constraints on design variables. The method makes use of a first order approximation for both deflection and stress constraints instead of the zero order approximation based on the concept of FSD (fully stressed design). A redesign algorithm is derived from a mathematically rigorous method which uses the Newton-Raphson method to solve the system of nonlinear constraint equations and reduces the design space whenever minimum size restrictions become active. When applied to worked examples it proved more accurate and efficient, and it is often found that optimum designs are not fully stressed designs. This fact suggests that this rigorous method is worth what it claims for complicated computing and thus had better replace the crude stress ratio algorithm adopted by the majority of optimality criteria approaches. This is particularly true as long as we enjoy ever-increasing computing power at negligible costs.