An adaptive mesh-adjustment strategy for continuum topology optimization to achieve manufacturable structural layout

摘要

This paper presents an adaptive mesh adjustment algorithm for continuum topology optimization method to describe the structural boundary using nonuniform isoparametric element. A criterion on the basis of the node movement is proposed; herein, the densities and coordinates of the nodes are defined to instruct the deformation of finite elements in subsequent optimization iterations. With such a scheme, the topology optimization can start from a regular mesh discretization then gradually yields an optimal design with clear structural boundaries. The element in the transition along the boundary is refined; on the contrary, the pure solid or void element is coarsen. The contribution of this work is to improve the resolution of the structural boundaries and decrease the percentage of transitional regions with the invariant design variable. Several 2D and 3D numerical examples indicate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Seen from the examples, the structural boundary become smoother and the intermediate densities have been reduced up to 70%. In addition, a design process based on the presented method is proposed to make the optimum solutions be fabricated conveniently and accurately by linking it with the 3D design software, ie, SolidWorks, which is also demonstrated in the numerical examples.