Material Cost Minimization Problem for Aluminum Alloy Beam using Beam String Structure

. Aluminum alloy is a light-weight material with excellent corrosion resistance but low rigidity. When the aluminum alloy is used to a girder bridge, it takes high costs owing to the increment of its stiffness. Therefore in order to reduce a material cost, the cost minimization problem was performed on beam string structure (BSS) made of the aluminum alloy material based on the results of the topology optimization. We focused on the layout of the BSS and diameter of the cable. The conducted simulation made clear the effectivity of the BSS to the aluminum alloy material for a reduction of material cost and increment of the beam span.