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Abstract A comprehensive study of various mathematical programming methods for structural optimization is presented. In recent years, many modern optimization techniques and convergence results have been developed in the field of mathematical programming. The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) to discuss the applicability of modern optimization techniques to structural design problems, and (b) to present mathematical programming methods from a unified and design engineers' viewpoint. Theoretical aspects are considered here, while numerical results of test problems are discussed in a companion paper. Special features possessed by structural optimization problems, together with recent developments in mathematical programming (recursive quadratic programming methods, global convergence theory), have formed a basis for conducting the study. Some improvements of existing methods are noted and areas for future investigation are discussed.
Belegundu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.