A dichotomous angle refinement discrete material optimization method for fiber composite materials

Abstract

The discrete material optimization method optimizes the distribution of materials by setting candidate materials using a multi-phase material penalty model. Addressing the issue of reduced efficiency in fiber orientation optimization due to a large number of candidate materials, this paper proposes a dichotomous angle refinement discrete material optimization method to enhance solution speed. This method leverages the efficiency of the bisection approach to rapidly refine the angle in discrete optimization results, thereby narrowing the range of candidate fiber orientations. Furthermore, by introducing fiber orientations perpendicular to the optimized orientation, it mitigates potential local optimization issues during the optimization process, thereby enhancing the method’s optimization capability. Compared to traditional discrete material optimization methods, this method employs a special dichotomy method to determine the candidate materials for each element, thereby decreasing the number of design variables. This method demonstrates higher computational efficiency when solving fiber orientation optimization problems with a large number of candidate materials. Several numerical examples provided in the paper validate the efficiency and stability of the proposed method in addressing optimization problems.