In this paper, we present the result of investigations pertaining to the elastic buckling of simply supported columns with various cross-sectional dimensions but the same length and volume. In the investigations the accuracy of the analysis methods is studied and it was found that the result obtained by the successive approximations technique is the most accurate. In addition, the elastic buckling loads of columns with variable cross-section dimensions are obtained by the theoretical and numerical methods. From the results, it was found that the buckling loads obtained by the numerical methods are close to the buckling loads obtained by the successive approximations technique for the practical standpoints. Moreover, the buckling load of column with convexity in its middle is the highest while the buckling load of the tapered column is the lowest as expected.

Co Evolutionary Structural Design(CESD) Framework is presented, which can deal with the load design and structural topology design simultaneously. The load design here is the exploration algorithm that finds the critical load patterns of the given structure. In general, the load pattern is a crucial factor in determining the structural topology and being selected from the experts어 intuition and experience. However, if any of the critical load patterns would be excluded during the process of problem formation, the solution structure might show inadequate performance under the load pattern. Otherwise if some reinforcement method such as safety factor method would be utilized, the solution structure could result in inefficient conservativeness. On the other hand, the CESD has the ability of automatically finding the most critical load patterns and can help the structural solution evolve into the robust design. The CESD is made up of a load design discipline and a structural topology design discipline both of which have the fully coupled relation each other. This coupling is resolved iteratively until the resultant solution can resist against all the possible load patterns and both disciplines evolve into the solution structure with the mutual help or competition. To verify the usefulness of this approach, the 10 bar truss and the jacket type offshore structure are presented. SORA(Sequential Optimization & Reliability Assessment) is adopted in CESD as a probabilistic optimization methodology, and its usefulness in decreasing the computational cost is verified also.