Comparison of two points of view when developing reliability-based topology optimization model: Validation on fatigue damage analysis

Abstract

The classical topology optimization leads to a prediction of the structural type and overall layout configuration, and gives a rough shape description of the outer as well as inner boundaries of the structure. While, the Reliability-Based Topology Optimization (RBTO) model leads to several reliability-based topologies with high performance levels. Several strategies have been developed in this area considering two points of view: topology optimization and reliability analysis. In this work, a literature review of this different developments considering the two points of view over the last 20 years is presented to show that the different developments considering the point of view 'topology optimization' generate several reliability-based topologies, however, the other developments considering the point of view 'reliability analysis' lead to a single configuration. A numerical application on fatigue damage analysis is considered as a validation of the developed methods taking the point of view 'topology optimization' into account.