Minimum weight design of solid annular plates under an assigned limit ring load

Abstract

During the last decades, several authors (Kozlowski W, Mroz Z (1969) Optimal design of solid plates. Int J Solids Struct 5:781–794; Lamblin D, Guerlement G (1976) Dimensionnement plastique de volume minimum sous contraintes de plaques sandwich circulaires soumises à des charges fixes ou mobiles. J Mec 15:55–84; Rozvany GIN, Olhoff N, Cheng KT, Taylor JE (1982) On the solid plate paradox in structural optimization. J Struct Mech 18:1–32) were interested in the minimum weight design of circular and annular plates under a given limit load. The theorems of limit analysis allow to compute the limit load of a given design, and optimality criteria have been established, providing a useful set of tools to solve the problem of weight minimization. However, the application of such criteria can lead to designs of poor practical interest. It is thus interesting to investigate in the field of plates subjected to an additional set of technological constraints and to evaluate the subsequent loss of efficiency in comparison with purely theoretical optima.