Development of Optimum Structural Analysis Program for Space Truss Structures

Recently, the space truss has been attracted by many designers because of their ability to support significant loads with a minimum material. And it is relatively flexible to design the configuration of structures. This paper presents a volume optimization for the space truss on the basis of result evaluated from nonlinear analysis. The optimization of the truss is done by nonlinear optimum GINO(General Interactive Nonlinear Optimizer) program. The objective function considered is the volume of the steel bars. The constraints for optimum design are the design limits, such as the axial force strength, maximum slenderness, minimum thickness, allowable deflection and ratio of the external diameter to thickness of the circular tube bars.