Application of the Sequential Optimization and Reliability Assessment Method to Structural Design Problems

The use of probabilistic optimization in structural design applications is hindered by the huge computational cost associated with evaluating probabilistic characteristics, where the computationally expensive finite element method (FEM) is often used for simulating design performance. In this paper, a Sequential Optimization and Reliability Assessment (SORA) method with analytical derivatives is applied to improve the efficiency of probabilistic structural optimization. With the SORA method, a single loop strategy that decouples the optimization and the reliability assessment is used to significantly reduce the computational demand of probabilistic optimization. Analytical sensitivities of displacement and stress functionals derived from finite element formulations are incorporated into the probability analysis without recurring excessive cost. The benefits of our proposed methods are demonstrated through two truss design problems by comparing the results with using conventional approaches. Results show that the SORA method with analytical derivatives is the most efficient with satisfactory accuracy.