ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF PRISMATIC PLATE AND SHELL STRUCTURES WITH CURVED PLANFORM .2. SHAPE OPTIMIZATION

This second part of the paper deals with the development and application of computational tools for structural shape optimization of prismatic folded plates and shells with curved planform. The structural analysis is carried out using the finite strip method formulated and tested in part I of this paper. Several examples of prismatic folded plates and shells are presented illustrating optimal shapes obtained by minimizing weight or strain energy. The changes in the relative contributions of the bending, membrane and shear strain energies are also monitored during the whole process of optimization to study energy distribution in optimum structures.