Boundary Element Approach to Optimal Structural Design Based on the Inverse Variational Principle

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of the boundary element method inthe optimal structural design based on the inverse variational principle. The Condition for optimum in the inverse variational shape determination method can be expressed in terms of the boundary data alone. Firstly, using the displacements obtained by BEM, the shape of a body is reformed so that the strain energy density might become uniform everywhere on the designed surface. Volume changes in the iterative process are calculated by the movements of the extreme points of the BEM. Optimum shapes are obtained by a comparable number of iterations with the finite element approach. The boundary element approach has the merit that tne initial division into elements and redivision for reanalysis can be more easily performed than in FEM.