General Information

Topology optimization is a tool to generate a new design proposal and is often used within the concept phase for determining a new conceptual design for a component.

The following figure shows a Topology optimization of a control arm:

Starting with the design area (which represents the maximum allowed area for the component) and with the boundary conditions, such as loads, fixtures and manufacturing conditions, the optimization system will determine a new material distribution by removing and adding material in the design area. This design proposal should fulfill all mechanical requirements and often represents a weight-optimal design proposal.

For the optimization, the following constraints and objectives can be applied:

  • stiffness (compliance and displacements)
  • eigenfrequencies
  • internal and reaction forces
  • weight, volume
  • center of gravity
  • moment of inertia
  • structural stress (von Mises stress)

In addition, a number of manufacturing constraints can be applied ensuring that the design proposal can be produced, e.g., with casting or stamping. Different geometrical constraints can be defined, like member size constraints, freezing of parts, symmetry and different coupling constraints.

As result, the optimization creates a design proposal with the information regarding the material layout. This design proposal has to be interpreted and has to be used for a more detailed analysis. For supporting this step, the SIMULIA Tosca Structure system supports the generation of a verification model within Tosca ANSA® environment. This means that a new model based on the results of the topology optimization can be created easily without the necessity of applying the loads and boundary conditions manually to the verification model. All load cases and boundary conditions of the original optimization model are also transferred automatically to the verification model.

With the results of the verification run, it is possible to perform a normal FE postprocessing step within the postprocessing environment suitable for your solver, or a CAD model can be generated that then can be transferred back to your CAD system.