Book Review “William R. Spillers and Keith M. MacBain. Structural Optimization,Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York,2009”

This book presents general theories and applications of structural optimization methods. The first chapter of the book introduces various basic concepts of structural optimization through several illustrative examples. Chapter 2 is devoted to a comprehensive review of math- ematical programming methods, including classical methods such as the simplex method, the （SLP） method, the interior point method and relatively new approaches such as genetic algo- rithms. The third chapter presents the main topic of this book, the SLP methods based on the incremental equations of structures. Some useful techniques in implementation of SLP, including the move limit, scaling and active constraint identifying, are discussed. In chapter 4, classical optimality criterion approaches, including the fully stress approach for truss struc- tures and its extensions for membrane and plate structures, are presented with demonstrative examples. The remaining chapters develop an overview of structural optimization problems, among which are dynamic optimization, multi-criterion optimization, earlier work on the op- timal layouts of plates, as well as some practical issues in general size and shape optimization problems.