This paper on "A Strategy to Combine Optimum Structural Shape Design with Automatic Mesh Adaption" was presented at the 5th International Conference on Reliability of Finite Element Methods for Engineering Applications - 10-12 May 1995, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Summary

This paper presents a methodology based on the use of automatic adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) techniques in the context of structural shape optimization problems analyzed by the Finite Element Method (FEM). The computation of the sensitivities of the finite element mesh coordinates and the error estimator allow their projection from one design to the next, giving an "a priori knowledge" of the error distribution on the new design. This allows to build up a finite element mesh for the new design with a specified and controlled level of error. The robustness and reliability of the proposed methodology is checked out with the optimization of the central section of a double curvature arch dam.