Tubular Member Sizing Optimization of a Conventional Air Cooler Support Frame Structure

Nowadays, the preference for fixed offshore structures is more towards minimum structures than complex structures. This is due to several considerations such as savings in production and operational costs, easier in maintenance, and reducing the impact on the environment. To transform a com-plex structure into a minimum structure requires an optimization process aimed at finding the most optimum structure. One of the optimizations that can be done is sizing optimization. This paper focused on finding the optimal size of tubular member of conventional Air Cooler Support Frame by minimizing its weight using optimization process with fmincon solver in MATLAB and radial basis function. An optimal Air Cooler Support Frame is obtained with constraints on serviceability limit state, diameter to thickness ratio, geometric parameters such as beta (β) and gamma (γ), and slenderness ratio. The results show that the weight of the optimized structure decreases 14.55% and ACSF structure has optimum structural strength compared with the original one. It shows that the proposed method can be used to optimized the size of tubular member of Air Cooler Support Frame with structural weight as the objective function.