Thickness Optimization of Vibrating Shells for Minimum Volume

Shell structures are the most often used structural elements in nature and technology. This paper presents a new technique for shape optimization of curved shell structures that takes advantage of the geometric modeling and automatic meshing capabilities of an existing parametric/associative CAD system. Using the method of inverse technique, a hanging model is created and inverted over 180°. The surfaces are discretized by shell elements involving shell structures subjected to free vibration. An iteratively adopted configuration with different mesh sizes, free vibration analysis is performed and optimum shape is obtained for minimum volume with a constraint on fundamental frequency.