The formulation also allowed different costs to be associated with either the plate or stiffener and in that way includes complexity of manufacture in the optimal design process. Higher Order Beam Theory Composite optimization and strength calculations are handicapped by the inability to accurately predict the through-thickness stress distribution of laminated composites. In his M.A.Sc. thesis, P. Chan used a novel method of which decomposes the problem into a superposition of a sequence of fundamental states. These fundamental states are solved exactly and provide the basis for a simple yet very precise method of predicting the required stress fields. Sensitivity Analysis D. Oguamanam and Z. S. Liu have completed a series of papers related to structural sensitivity analysis.
Sensitivity analysis is the corner stone of many numerical optimization strategies.
Projects completed to date relate to the development of sensitivity analysis capabilities for lumped mass and stringer location in plates and shells, exact expressions for sensitivity analysis of certain structures with prescribed shape changes and finite element solution of sensitivity to boundary shape changes. Current work is emphasizing a new approach to boundary shape sensitivity analysis referred to as a fixed basis finite element approach . The theoretical formulation of this approach has been completed while the implementation of this approach represents the M. A. Sc. work of C. Young. Up to Struct. Mechanics and Advanced Comp.