| Optimal designs are highly dependent on the conditions for which they are optimized. The optimal designs of structures subject to uncertain loading conditions, may not be safe when ignored or unknown load cases are encountered. This work presents a deterministic technique for dealing with the uncertain load cases such that optimization will produce a robust design. The uncertain load cases are bound within a convex hull which is used in a min-max optimization to search the load space and ensure the optimal design is the best considering any load case within the hull. Two algorithms are developed, and presented with two-bar, three-bar and ten-bar truss examples and compared with a conventional technique for dealing with multiple load cases. The relative efficiencies of the algorithms are also compared, and recommendations for further improvement and application are made. |
