Stress-oriented structural optimization for frame structures

• DOI: 10.1016/j.gmod.2018.04.002
• Publication Date: 2018-05-04T16:53:33Z
• Authors: Shuangming Chai; Baiyu Chen; Mengyu Ji; Zhouwang Yang; Manfred Lau; Xiao-Ming Fu; Ligang Liu
• Keywords: 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 0211 other engineering and technologies; 02 engineering and technology; 620

Abstract To fabricate a virtual shape into the real world, the physical strength of the shape is an important consideration. We introduce a framework to consider both the strength and complexity of 3D frame structures. The key to the framework is a stress-oriented analysis and a semi-continuous condition in the shape representation that can both strengthen and simplify a structure at the same time. We formulate a novel semi-continuous optimization and present an elegant method to solve this optimization. We also extend our framework to general solid shapes by considering them as skeletal structures with non-uniform beams. We demonstrate our approach with applications such as topology simplification and structural strengthening.