Optimal Mass Design of 25 Bars Truss with Loading Conditions on Five Node Elements

Abstract

The optimal design of a twenty-five bar space truss commonly involves multiple loading conditions acting on 4 node elements in the linear elastic model. In this paper, we describe the behavior of the truss system with our experimental loading conditions on five node elements subject to minimum displacement and stresses that are used to formulate the constrained nonlinear optimization problem. Numerical computations are developed with the objective of mass minimization and the best structural design is selected by applying the interior point method with the guidance of Matlab Optimization Toolbox. Our numerical results show the optimal values of cross-sectional areas, material densities, and internal forces which satisfy the minimum weight design. These results provide the appropriate mass to the experimental data and allow substantial changes in size, shape, and topology.