Optimal elastic design of beams (Q1093421)

According to the principle of minimum complementary energy a mathematical statement of the optimal strength design problem for elastic beams is formulated, which is an extremum problem of functionals with equality and inequality constraints. The application of the Lagrangian multiplier method yields the necessary conditions for extrema. A set of relations that must be statisfied by the optimal solution is given. This set of relations can be used to verify the optimality of a uniform strength design or any feasible elastic design. An iterative numerical method to find the optimal solution when the uniform strength design is not optimal is also presented.