49K15 Problems involving ordinary differential equations
Optimal Thickness of a Cylindrical Shell -- An Optimal Control Problem in Linear Elasticity Theory
(2012)
In this paper we discuss optimization problems for cylindrical tubes which are loaded by an applied force. This is a problem of optimal control in linear elasticity theory (shape optimization). We are looking for an optimal thickness minimizing the deflection (deformation) of the tube under the influence of an external force.
From basic equations of mechanics, we derive the equation of deformation. We apply the displacement approach from shell theory and make use of the hypotheses of
Mindlin and Reissner. A corresponding optimal control problem is formulated and first order necessary conditions for the optimal solution (optimal thickness) are derived.
We present numerical examples which were solved by the finite element method.
We study optimal control problems for general unstructured nonlinear differential-algebraic equations of arbitrary index.
In particular, we derive necessary conditions in the case of linear-quadratic control problems and extend them to the general nonlinear case.
We also present a Pontryagin maximum principle for general unstructured nonlinear DAEs in the case of restricted controls.
Moreover, we discuss the numerical solution of the resulting two-point boundary value problems and present a numerical example.