  Optimization of large structures of multiple components is essential to many
industries for minimizing mass, especially the design of aerospace vehicles.
Optimizing a single primary load member independently of all other primary
structures is an incomplete process, due to the redistribution of internal
loads, as the stiffness distribution changes. That is, optimizing a component
changes joint loads, which then calls for a new optimization - changing
internal loads changes the optimum. This is particularly evident under buckling
(stability) constraints. The goal is to develop a finite element-based
optimization approach which can be used to optimize each component of a large,
primary structure assembly. The optimization objective function will be to
minimize mass for the system, and the constraints will be both stress
constraints as well as buckling constraints. The research aims to improve both
the solution and practical usability of these models. The system of interest is
a spacecraft fuselage, of which the member components are panels throughout the
structure. We present analyses of several main optimization methods, and define
a new algorithm to solve this problem, eigenOpt.
