The minimum flexibility design of large-scale truss structure based on full-strain criterion

For large truss structure, a structural optimization design method has been derived successfully. The design goal is finding the smallest flexibility of the entire structure, also finding the maximum stiffness. The criterion is full-strain criterion. When the weight of the entire truss structure satisfied certain constraints, the entire flexibility can be reached by optimizing the cross-sectional area of each pole. Simulation results showed that method can make truss structure's entire flexibility reach minimum with limited number of iteration steps. The stop criterion is the sum difference of all pole's cross-sectional area between two iterations. With the stop criterion becoming smaller, the number of iterations increases, the computation time required also increases. In practice, the stop criterion should be determined by actual demand and cost constraints.