Kriging-assisted design of functionally graded cellular structures with smoothly-varying lattice unit cells

Abstract

Cellular structures in nature have attracted great attention in the field of structural optimization. This paper proposes a Kriging-assisted topology optimization method for design of functionally graded cellular structures (FGCS), which are infilled by smoothly-varying lattice unit cells (LUCs). Specifically, LUCs are depicted by level set functions and the shape interpolation method is employed to generate sample LUCs. Then, one Kriging metamodel is constructed to predict the mechanical properties of LUCs within FGCS, so as to reduce the computational expense involved in finite element analysis of LUCs. Meanwhile, the other Kriging metamodel is created to predict the values of shape interpolation function, and a Kriging-assisted morphological post-process method is put forward to achieve the smooth transition between adjacent graded LUCs. In the proposed method, the effective densities, mechanical properties, and geometrical configurations of LUCs are coupled by Kriging metamodels, so that the multiscale design of FGCS can be realized at a low computational burden by optimizing the distribution of elemental densities, and this also paves the way for design of FGCS with irregular geometries by morphological post-process and geometry reconstruction. Numerical examples are presented to validate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method for design of FGCS. What is more, the design of a pillow bracket with a slightly complex geometry is provided to illustrate the engineering application of the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method is effective and universal for designing FGCS with smoothly-varying LUCs.