Approach to failure mode analysis of large structures

This paper deals with strategies for searching failure modes in large structures. At first, typical methods in this field are reviewed, i.e. the incremental loading method, the branch and bound technique, the β-unzipping method, mathematical programming, simulation methods and some heuristic techniques. Their features and applicability are compared. Then, a new selective search procedure combined with a genetic algorithm is discussed as a possibility to create more intelligent methods for generation of failure modes.