DESAP 2: A structural design program with stress and buckling constraints. Volume 1: Theoretical and user's manual

DESAP 2 is described as a finite element program for computer-automated, minimum weight design of elastic structures with constraints on stresses (including local instability criteria) and buckling loads. No limits are placed on the number of load conditions for stress-constrained design, but only one of these load conditions can be chosen as the potential buckling load. A substantial portion of DESAP 2, particularly the analysis of the prebuckling state, is derived from the SOLID SAP finite element program. The stress-constrained design is based on the classical stress ratio method, which drives the design towards a fully stressed state. The constraints on the buckling load are handled by solving the appropriate optimality criterion by successive iterations. During each iteration, the element sizes determined by the stress ratio method are used as the minimum size constraints. The element subroutines are organized in a manner that permits the user to make additions and changes with a minimal programming effort. Consequently, DESAP 2 can readily be changed into a special-purpose program to handle the user's specific design requirements and failure criteria.