OPTIMIZATION METHODS IN (STRUCTURAL) ENGINEERING

The aim of this article is to present some general concepts about opti mization and methods of application pertinent to engineering practice. In spite of more general applications, for the sake of clearness, att ention will be addressed to the optimization of structures, with the a im of reflecting on the general features of the problems of optimal de sign. Making reference to new trends in structural optimization, analy tical and numerical methods will be presented and discussed and their use will be explained through some sample applications.