Cascading - an approach to robust material optimization

This paper deals with a central question of structural optimization: design of the stiffest structure occupying some fixed domain which is capable of carrying a given set of external loads. The design variables are the material properties at each point of the structure. In addition, we require that the structure can withstand small incidental forces which are not known a priori. We introduce the notion of robust design and propose a solution technique called cascading. This technique enables us to find a good approximation of the robust design with a relatively small computational effort. Examples demonstrate efficiency of this technique and importance of the robust structural design itself. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.