Author(s)

S. Kravanja, Z. Kravanja and B.S. Bedenik

Abstract

The paper present a Linked Multilevel Hierarchical (LMH) approach to the Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) synthesis of mechanical structures, by which the original MINLP problem is hierarchically decomposed into material, topology and standard dimension levels to be solved sequentially. We introduce a special case of a simplified MINLP model formulation for mechanical superstructures (MINLP-S), which are supposed to contain a number of (sub)groups of equal structural elements. The objective is to perform a continuous parameter optimization of the superstructure simultaneously with a discrete optimization of its material, topology and standard dimension alternatives. The Modified Outer- Approximation/Equality-Relaxation (OA/ER) algorithm has been used for the optimi

Keywords