Topology Optimization of Strength-Safe Continuum Structures Considering Random Damage

Abstract

Spacecraft in the aerospace field and military equipment in the military field are at risk of being impacted by external objects, which can cause local damage to the structure. The randomness of local damage is a new challenge for structural design, and it is essential to take random damage into account in the conceptual design phase for the purpose of improving structure’s resistance to external shocks. In this article, a random damaged structure is assumed to have damages of the same size and shape at random locations, and the random damage is considered as multiple damage conditions of the structure. In order to improve the randomness and comprehensiveness of the multiple damage conditions, the stacking strategy is used to generate the distribution of the damage area. Following this strategy, the topology optimization design of the random damaged structure, which is to minimize the weight of the structure with a constraint on the stress of the structure under multiple damage conditions, is formulated based on the independent continuous mapping (ICM) method. The dual sequence quadratic programming (DSQP) algorithm combined with the stress globalization method is adopted to solve the optimization problem. The numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method in the topology optimization of strength-safe continuum structures.