Optimum design of truss topology under buckling constraints

The present paper studies the optimum design of truss topology under buckling constraints based on a new formulation of the problem. Through the incorporation of a global system stability constraint into the problem formulation, isolated compressive bars are eliminated from the final optimal topology. Furthermore, by including overlapping bars in the initial ground structure, the difficulty caused by hinge cancellation as pointed out by Rozvany (1996) can be overcome. Also, the importance of inclusion of compatibility conditions in the problem formulation is demonstrated. Finally, several numerical examples are presented for demonstration of the effectiveness of the proposed approach.