Topological optimization for the design of microstructures of isotropic cellular materials

Abstract

The aim of this study was to design isotropic periodic microstructures of cellular materials using the bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) technique. The goal was to determine the optimal distribution of material phase within the periodic base cell. Maximizing bulk modulus or shear modulus was selected as the objective of the material design subject to an isotropy constraint and a volume constraint. The effective properties of the material were found using the homogenization method based on finite element analyses of the base cell. The proposed BESO procedure utilizes the gradient-based sensitivity method to impose the isotropy constraint and gradually evolve the microstructures of cellular materials to an optimum. Numerical examples show the computational efficiency of the approach. A series of new and interesting microstructures of isotropic cellular materials that maximize the bulk or shear modulus have been found and presented. The methodology can be extended to incorporate other material properties of interest such as designing isotropic cellular materials with negative Poisson's ratio.