AMCP 706-192, AMC PAMPHLET: ENGINEERING DESIGN HANDBOOK - COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF MECHANICAL SYSTEMS (JUL-1973)

AMCP 706-192, AMC PAMPHLET: ENGINEERING DESIGN HANDBOOK - COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF MECHANICAL SYSTEMS (JUL-1973)., This text treats a broad class of optimal design problems through use of a consistent set of computational techniques ideally suited for computer application to mechanical design problems. No attempt has been made to be I exhaustive in the treatment of optimization techniques or the full range of mechanica! applications. Rather, the class of problems treated isconcisely formulated (in Chapters 4 and following) in terms of design and state variabls that occur in mechanical design. A steepest-descent approach - I which has served as a workhorse, reliable technique in fields such as aerodynamic system design, control theory, and nonlinear programming - is developed here for mechanical system design. Extensive application of design optimization techniques is made in the field of structural design, as well as in a limited number of specific weapon design problems. The examples are presented in considerable detail, as they are encountered in practice, to provide the practicing engineer w;th insight into use of the methods for his class of problems. A consistent design philosophy is maintained throughout the text to assist the designer in extrapolating the methods to classes of problems that are only similar mathematically to the examples treated here.