On automated optimum design of trusses

In the course of formulating the automated design of trusses for a project, some hitherto unexplored ideas have been encountered. These ideas are developed in this article.To explore these ideas systematically, truss design for single and multiple load conditions are considered separately. In the first part the applicability of linear programming is illustrated for single load conditions to safeguard against failures by yielding, buckling, and excessive deformations. Postoptimal behaviour of the structure is also studied.In the second part nonlinear programming is used as the design tool for multiple loading conditions. In this procedure, the members are grouped, a fully utilized design is taken as the starting point, and the condensed matrix displacement method of reanalysis is adopted during optimization iterations.Practical design examples of trussed towers are given to illustrate the capabilities of the computer program developed.