OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF FLEXIBLE MECHANISMS WITH FREQUENCY CONSTRAINTS

The paper presents a finite element method for minimum weight design o f flexible mechanisms with multiple frequency constraints and upper an d lower bound constraints on the design variables. The design algorith m developed in this paper is formulated in terms of the Kuhn-Tucker op timality criterion, in which two damping factors are introduced to gua rantee the algorithm possesses good stability and convergence. The fir st and second order design sensitivity analyses of eigenvalues are pre sented and the values of the damping factors alpha and beta are recomm ended. Results of three numerical examples show that the algorithm is stable and the optimal design can be obtained in less than 15 iteratio ns.