AN ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURAL OPTIMIZATION USING CATIA V5

The aim of this paper is to explore the structural optimization using CATIA's built in capabilities of finite element analysis and optimization. Initially, the environment available for the integrated design, structural analysis and general optimization is discussed. Then, the characteristics of the general optimization algorithms that conduct the structural optimization are briefly reviewed. Thereafter, three problems are stated and solved, with a critical and detailed appreciation of the results obtained. Also, some simple ideas are proposed and tested to improve doing structural optimization with CATIA¹.