Multiobjective Geometric Analysis of Stiffened Plates under ‎Bending through Constructal Design Method

Constructal design, finite element method and exhaustive search are applied to analyze different arrangements of steel plates with rectangular or trapezoidal stiffeners. As performance parameters, the maximum deflection and maximum von Mises stress are considered. A non-stiffened plate adopted as reference is studied together with 25 plates with rectangular stiffeners and 25 plates with trapezoidal stiffeners. The results show that trapezoidal stiffeners are more effective in minimizing the maximum deflection in comparison with rectangular stiffeners. However, regarding the minimization of stress, the rectangular stiffeners normally present better performance. When both performance parameters are concomitantly considered, a slight advantage of 4.70% for rectangular geometry is identified.