No label defined (Q4040153)

The book deals with a discussion of the basic structural stability and structural optimization problems and the solution methods, followed by a systematic review of solutions obtained for columns, arches, bar systems, plates, shells and thin-walled bars. A unified approach based on Pontryagin's maximum principle is employed as much as possible, at least to problems of columns, arches and plates. The book contains nine chapters. The first chapter contains the elements of the theory of structural stability including stability of elastic structures and elastic-plastic stability. The second chapter deals with the problems of optimal structural design under stability constraints. The third chapter is concerned with the methods of structural optimization including calculus of variations, Pontryagin's maximum principle, sensitivity analysis and parametric optimization (mathematical programming). The fourth and fifth chapters are devoted to the investigation of the elastic and inelastic columns and arches. The last four chapters are devoted to trusses and frames, plates and panels, shells and thin-walled bars. Particular attention has been paid to the provision of a comprehensive list of references. The appended bibliography is given with full details; it contains first a chronological list of books dealing with optimum structural design, structural stability, optimization theory and methods, and then alphabetic lists of references allocated to the individual chapters, but gathered at the end of the book. All in all this unique bibliography contains over 2.000 entries, and is estimated by the authors to constitute 80-90 percent of the world literature in the field of optimal structural design involving stability constraints. This is an excellent book, written in form of a monograph covering a fairly wide range of topics and adressed to researchers and design engineers, but it may as well be used as an auxiliary text in teaching a graduate course in structural optimization.