Structural deterioration of curved thin-walled structure and recovery by rib installation: Verification with structural optimization algorithm

Structural improvements for curved-surface thin-walled structures were examined. In such structures, installations of ribs-support structures for out-of-plane deformations-are often effective. These out-of-plane deformations are attributed to internal loadings induced from plane stresses. Shapes of solid curved I-sectional beams models were optimized using a structural optimization algorithm-the traction method. Ribbed structures were created semi-automatically by the structural optimization when adequate rib-triggers-striped shape constraints or humps in the initial shapes-were applied to the models. This result validates the effectiveness of rib installations on curved surface structures. It is notable that the rib formation created substantial topology changes.