A computer program for shell and plate optimal design has been developed. Both three-dimensional plate and curved shell elements with 4 or 9 nodes have been included. A detailed description of the element matrices and sensitivity analysis is given. Following the conventional optimal structural design formulation, a weight minimization under constraints on stress, nodal displacement, natural frequency and design variable bounds is considered. The program is coded in a modular form such that it can be linked to the existing optimal design program, STROD for beam and truss structures.
Several numerical examples have been solved to test the algorithm and the results compared with analytic solutions. A typical application problem is then treated. Although the usefulness and practicality have been demonstrated, the computational effort is found relatively large. The computational efficiency and user friendliness of the program remain to be enhanced for better acceptance.
