TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION IS AN ALGORITHMIC APPROACH to a ubiquitous engineering problem: How can you distribute a limited resource (e.g. material), in a predefined design domain-subject to applied loads, boundary conditions and certain design restrictions-in an optimal way? In engineering terms, the state of material is discrete: at each and every spatial position material is either present or absent. Therefore, the term material distribution is often used interchangeably with terms like shape, geometry, connectivity, or layout. The word topology is derived from the Greek word topos, literally meaning place. Topology refers to the study of place, the relative positions of the constituent parts of a structure, and the manner in which these are connected, interrelated and arranged.
展开▼
