SOME PROBLEMS OF OPTIMAL SHELL DESIGN ALLOWED FOR DAMAGE ACCUMULATION

Abstract

The problems of designing shells with minimum weight made of quasi-brittle materials are investigated. An optimization problem of searching the shapes of the axisymmetric shells is formulated and solved which takes into account the possibility of crack formation and its propagation as a result of the cyclic loading applied to the shell. This problem is characterized by incomplete information about initial sizes, a crack location and its orientation. The problem statement and the method of its solution are based on the minimax (guaranteed) approach. A modified algorithm of the genetic (evolution) method is applied to finding a global optimal solution. The numerical results of shape optimization for the axisymmetric shells are given.