Topology Optimization of Pressure-Loaded Multi-material Structures
摘要
Permitting multiple materials within a topology optimization setting increases the search space of the technique, which facilitates obtaining relatively high-performing and efficient optimized designs. Structures with multiple materials involving fluidic pressure loads find various applications. However, dealing with the design-dependent pressure loads is challenging in topology optimization, which gets even more pronounced with a multi-material framework. This paper provides a density-based topology optimization method to design fluidic pressure loadbearing multi-material structures. The design domain is parameterized using hexagonal elements as they ensure nonsingular connectivity. Pressure modeling is performed using the Darcy law with a conceptualized drainage term. The flow coefficient of each element is determined using a smooth Heaviside function considering its solid and void states. The consistent nodal loads are determined using the standard finite element methods. Multiple materials are modeled using the extended SIMP scheme. Compliance minimization with volume constraints is performed to achieve optimized loadbearing structures. A few examples are presented to demonstrate the efficacy and versatility of the proposed approach. The optimized results contain the prescribed volume of different materials.