OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF TRUSSES FOR OVERALL STABILITY

This paper synthesizes the design of trusses for linear stability constraint as an optimization problem where linear stability is defined as a generalized eigenvalue problem and presents a rather fast converging algorithm of the 'allowable stress' type for its solution. The technique proves to be similar to that used for the design of frequency constrained structures and adds yet another perspective to the already popular 'allowable stress' algorithms. Design examples are included.