ABSTRACT
Deterioration and damage in hanger connection plates of steel arch bridges, caused by wind induced vibrations, often have severe impact on the overall safety of the structure. In this paper, an approach for the shape optimization of such connection plates is presented. Herein, various lifetime oriented design criteria are discussed and some techniques for shape optimization using the p-version of finite elements are described. The actual optimization is carried out by using evolution strategies. First design studies show promising results.