STRUCTURAL TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION CONSIDERING MATERIAL FAILURE

THIS WORK PRESENTS AN APPROACH FOR MASS MINIMIZATION OF MECHANICAL DEVICES SUBJECT TO MULTIPLE LOAD CONDITIONS AND MATERIAL FAILURE CONSTRAINTS. THE DESIGN CONTROL IS PERFORMED THROUGH TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION CONCEPTS, IN PARTICULAR THE SIMP APPROACH (SOLID ISOTROPIC MICROSTRUCTURE WITH INTERMEDIATE MASS PENALIZATION). THE OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURE COMBINES AN AUGMENTED LAGRANGIAN TECHNIQUE TO HANDLE LOCAL STRESS-BASED FAILURE CONSTRAINTS AND A BOX-TYPE ALGORITHM TO DEAL WITH UPPER AND LOWER LIMITS ON THE DESIGN VARIABLES. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS CALCULATIONS ARE PERFORMED THROUGH ANALYTICAL EXPRESSIONS USING THE ADJOINT TECHNIQUE. IN THIS WAY, NUMERICAL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH A MULTIPLE LOADED CASE ARE VERY SIMILAR TO THOSE OF A SINGLE LOADED CASE. SOME NUMERICAL EXAMPLES ARE PRESENTED SHOWING QUITE DIRERENT OPTIMAL DESIGNS IF WE COMPARE SINGLE AND MULTIPLE LOAD CASES.