evolutionary structural optimization

In this example, the optimization of a loaded panel is performed by using the BESO method. The model can be downloaded here.

Design Domain

The design domain has a dimension of $100\times40$ with left side fully fixed. At the center of the right side, a point load is applied. The panel is discretized with $4000$ CP4 elements.

The node and elements are defined in files node.supan and element.supan. They can be loaded.

file node.supan
file element.supan

The boundary condition is applied to a group that selects all nodes on $x=0$.

generatebyrule nodegroup 1 1 1. 0.
groupmultiplierbc 1 P 1

The Optimization Step

To perform structural optimization, a Optimization step needs to be defined.

step Optimization 1

To define a proper rule to update the model by adding/deleting elements, one can use the StrainEnergyEvolution criterion. The following command defines a strain energy based evolution rule with an increment step of $2\%$ to reach the final design level $50\%$, that is to remove $50\%$ elements.

criterion StrainEnergyEvolution 1 2 50 1 1 40

Result

optimization