Abstract
This paper extends the algorithm of Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO) developed by Xie and Steven to the optimal design problems of thermoelastic structures. This extension simply incorporates an evolutionary iterative process into thermoelastic finite element analysis. During each iteration two basic steps are included. Firstly, a finite element thermoelastic analysis is carried out throughout the structure at current iterative step; secondly, a small part of the lowly stressed material is gradually removed from the structure by an evolving rejection criterion. Using such an evolution process, some existing solutions for 2D thermoelasticity optimization can be easily reproduced. The work presented in this paper demonstrates the capability of this approach in solving thermoelastic problems.
