BALANCING WEIGHT, SYSTEM RELIABILITY AND REDUNDANCY IN A MULTIOBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION FRAMEWORK

Redundancy is often desired in structural systems, although no redundancy definition has been widely accepted as an objective measurement. In this paper a probabilistic index is employed as a measure of structural redundancy. This index is compatible with structural system reliability analysis. The optimization problem is solved in a multiobjective framework in which the goal is to minimize and/or maximize several objectives simultaneously. Optimal structural designs are sought in the sense of least weight, highest system reliability and highest system redundancy. Numerical results show that optimal searchings balancing weight, system reliability and system redundancy produce more rational structural designs. © 1990.