Abstract
Topology optimization (TO) has been a popular design method among CAD designers in the last decades. This method optimizes the given design domain by minimizing/maximizing one or more objective functions, such as the structure’s stiffness, and at the same time, respecting the given constraints like the volume or the weight reduction. For this reason, the companies providing the commercial CAD/FEM platforms have taken this design trend into account and, thus, have included TO in their products over the last years. However, it is not clear which features, algorithms, or, in other words, possibilities the CAD designers do have using these software platforms. A comparative study among the most applied topology optimization software was conducted for this research paper. First, the authors developed an online database of the identified TO software in the form of a table. Interested CAD designers can access and edit its content, contributing in this way to the creation of an updated library of the available TO software. In addition, a deeper comparison among three commercial software platforms—SolidWorks, ANSYS Mechanical, and ABAQUS—was implemented using three common case studies—(1) a bell crank lever, (2) a pillow bracket, and (3) a small bridge. These models were designed, optimized, and validated numerically, as well as compared for their strength. Finally, the above software was evaluated with respect to optimization time, optimized designs, and TO possibilities and features.
Highlights
Topology optimization (TO) is an optimization technique where the material distribution of a structure is spatially optimized by minimizing or maximizing one or more objective function(s), such as stiffness and cost with respect to given constraints, for example, a specific weight reduction [1]
According to Bendsøe and Sigmund [1], the Structural optimization (SO) consists of size, shape, and topology optimization
The size optimization consists of global size optimization and local size optimization, which can be referred to as topometry optimization
Summary
Topology optimization (TO) is an optimization technique where the material distribution of a structure is spatially optimized by minimizing or maximizing one or more objective function(s), such as stiffness and cost with respect to given constraints, for example, a specific weight reduction [1]. Structural optimization (SO), in general, has been well described over the previous decades in the literature [2,3,4]. In these works, the theoretical background, as well as the different types of SO, are presented in detail. According to Bendsøe and Sigmund [1], the SO consists of size, shape, and topology optimization. At the topology optimization category, there is both the traditional TO at the macroscale level and the lattice optimization at the meso- and microscale levels of the structure [7,8,9]. Generative design, with its flexibility, could be added to this category [10]
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