Sizing of a spherical shell as variable thickness under dynamicloads

In this paper, optimization of a spherical shell under various dynamic loads is investigated. The aim of this optimization problem is to minimize the volume of the shell. Design variables are corner thicknesses of each finite element. Constraints are stresses obtained from von Mises stress criterion not to exceed the yield stress in corner nodal points of each finite element at the top and bottom surfaces of shell and thicknesses are restricted not to be less than 2.5 mm. In addition to shell's own weight, the vertical loads with equal intensity are applied at the nodal points on the upper edge of spherical shell, varying with respect to time function P(t). Time varying load vector is considered three different cases such as step, step after ramp and impulse functions. A program is coded with MapleV for optimization of spherical shell and finite element package program ANSYS is used for structural analysis. Obtained results are presented in graphical and tabular form. Finally, concluded remarks are given.