Etman, L. F. P.; van Campen, D. H.; Schoofs, A. J. G. Design optimization of multibody systems by sequential approximation. (English) Zbl 0933.74051 Multibody Syst. Dyn. 2, No. 4, 393-415 (1998). We propose to couple the multibody analysis and optimization algorithm by approximation concepts. The basic idea is to generate approximations of objective function and constraints in a certain part of the design space, and to find the optimum point for this approximate optimization problem. The approximate problem can be easily solved using a mathematical programming algorithm, without any call to the analysis program. The effectiveness of the approximate optimization approach is demonstrated for three examples: an impact absorber, a slider-crank mechanism, and a stress-constrained four-bar mechanism with flexible beams. Cited in 8 Documents MSC: 74P10 Optimization of other properties in solid mechanics 70E55 Dynamics of multibody systems 65K10 Numerical optimization and variational techniques Keywords:approximations of objective function and constraints; mathematical programming algorithm; impact absorber; slider-crank mechanism; stress-constrained four-bar mechanism with flexible beams PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{L. F. P. Etman} et al., Multibody Syst. Dyn. 2, No. 4, 393--415 (1998; Zbl 0933.74051) Full Text: DOI