Optimal design of plastic cylindrical shells of von Mises material

Abstract

Optimal design of plastic circular cylindrical shells of von Mises material is studied. The optimization problem is stated as the maximization problem of the load carrying capacity for given weight of the shell. Shells with constant and piecewise-constant thickness are considered. The maximization problem is performed under the requirement that the material volume of the stepped shell is equal to the case of the reference shell of constant thickness. The material of the shell is assumed to be an ideal rigid plastic obeying von Mises yield criterion. The considered nonlinear problems are solved by using the CASes method.