MINIMUM-WEIGHT DESIGN OF FLEXIBLE ARMS FOR SPECIFIED FUNDAMENTAL-FREQUENCY

The problem of designing a minimum-weight one-link flexible arm for a specified fundamental frequency of vibration has been investigated. Th e optimum design problem is formulated as a nonlinear eigenvalue probl em using the variational method. Two iteration schemes are developed t o find the optimum solution in the normal and degenerated cases. Numer ical results have indicated that a significant reduction in link weigh t can be achieved by the proposed method. For example, for a geometric ally similar cross section and a specified fundamental frequency rangi ng from 1 Hz to 10 Hz, the weight of an optimum link is 400% to 600% l ighter than that of an uniform link. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.