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Optimal Design Of Trusses With Geometric Imperfections: Accounting For Global Instability, Mehdi Jalalpour, Takeru Igusa, James K. Guest

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A topology optimization method is proposed for the design of trusses with random geometric imperfections due to fabrication errors. This method is a generalization of a previously developed perturbation approach to topology optimization under geometric uncertainties. The main novelty in the present paper is that the objective function includes the nonlinear effects of potential buckling due to misaligned structural members. Solutions are therefore dependent on the magnitude of applied loads and the direction of resulting internal member forces (whether they are compression or tension). Direct differentiation is used in the sensitivity analysis, and analytical expressions for the associated derivatives are …