Doing Topology Optimization Explicitly and Geometrically—A New Moving Morphable Components Based Framework

Abstract

In the present work, we intend to demonstrate how to do topology optimization in an explicit and geometrical way. To this end, a new computational framework for structural topology optimization based on the concept of moving morphable components is proposed. Compared with the traditional pixel or node point-based solution framework, the proposed solution paradigm can incorporate more geometry and mechanical information into topology optimization directly and therefore render the solution process more flexibility. It also has the great potential to reduce the computational burden associated with topology optimization substantially. Some representative examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.