Concurrent Topological Optimization of a Wheel and Brake Caliper Assembly

Abstract

Abstract The paper deals with the topological optimization of a wheel and brake caliper assembly. In this system, the design of each components is influenced by the actual shape of the other component. In fact, a conflict exists in the room requirements of the two components. In the design process, therefore, not only the material distribution of the two bodies has to be optimized, but also the design space has to be divided in most effective way. The design of the wheel and brake caliper assembly can be seen as a special class of topological optimization problem. Such problem of concurrent topological optimization of two components sharing part of the design space has been already addressed by the authors in previous papers under the restriction that the two bodies have the same mesh in the shared part of the domain. In this paper, a novel development of the presented optimization algorithm is described. The algorithm is modified in order to allow the concurrent optimization of two bodies with different meshes in the common part of the domain. This new development allows the methodology to be applied to any real problem with arbitrarily complex geometry. The application to the case of the wheel and brake assembly is shown.