Design optimization based on state problem functionals.

This paper presents a general mathematical structure for design optimization problems, where state problem functionals are used as design objectives.It extends to design optimization the general model of physical theories pioneered by Tonti (, ) and Oden and Reddy (, ). It turns out that the classical structural optimization problem of compliance minimization is a member of the treated general class of problems. Other particular examples, discussed in the paper, are related to Darcy-Stokes flow and pipe flow models. A main novel feature of the paper is the unification of seemingly different design problems, but the general mathematical structure also explains some previously not fully understood phenomena. For instance, the self-penalization property of Stokes flow design optimization receives an explanation in terms of minimization of a concave function over a convex set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]