Optimum design of isotropic monocoque and ring-stiffened circular cylindrical shells subject to external hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

The objective of this research is to create a flexible code which is to be used in the investigation of optimum (minimum weight) shell designs. A shell analysis/design program (DAPS3) and a general purpose numerical optimization program (ADS) are incorporated into a single code (THESIS). This code provides the user great flexibility in changing the design variables and constraints which model the optimization problem. The optimum designs produced by this code are compared to DAPS3 optimum designs in order to identify any improvements made by the numerical optimization technique.