Reply To: Combined solution for structural optimization

[John Doyle]

It is taking the maximum stress in all elements (except those lying in the exclusion region) for each load case.  Please refer to Section 2.5.1. Objective (ansys.com) of the online Mechanical Applications Guide for more details. It applys equal weight to each load case, by default, unless you specify different weighing factors for different cases, to bias the Optimizer to emphasize one or more load case over others.