Design Sensitivity Analysis of Truss Structures with Elastoplastic Material*

ABSTRACT

A continuum-based design sensitivity analysis (DSA) method is presented for configuration (or layout) design of nonlinear structural systems with rate-independent elastoplastic material. Configuration design variables are characterized by shape and orientation changes of the structural component. A continuum-based shape DSA method that utilizes the material derivative of continuum mechanics is extended to account for effects of shape and orientation variations. The incremental analysis method, with updated Lagrangian formulation, is used to derive the design sensitivity for the nonlinear structural system.

To derive the design sensitivity, incremental energy and load forms are utilized. The first variations of energy and load forms and the static response with respect to configuration design variables are described using the material derivative. Direct differentiation is utilized to obtain the first variation of the performance measure explicitly in terms of variations of configuration design variables. With the consistent tangent stiffness matrix employed at the end of each load step to compute the design sensitivity, it is found that no iterations are necessary to compute design sensitivity. In addition, the linear design velocity is used to account for configuration design changes, with the velocity field being updated at each load step of the incremental analysis.