A formal two-level decomposition method for sizing problems of general finite element models is proposed. We consider weight minimization problems subject to stress and displacement constraints. Structural analysis and calculation of necessary coordination variables is done on the global system level. On the subsytem level the optimization is performed with a reduced number of variables and constraints. We present a method to handle global (i.e. displacement) constraints by constraining the proportion of each subsystem to the global value. The formal analysis of the optimality conditions ensures that the obtained solution corresponds to the solution of the global system. Analysis and coordination variables may be approximated on the subsystem level by a local reanalysis technique. The proposed method is suitable for implementation on parallel and distributed computer architectures.

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