Extended Finite Element Method Schemes for Structural Topology Optimization

Level set method is an elegant approach for structural shape and topology optimization, compared to the conventional material based topology optimization methods. The structural boundary is implicitly represented by a moving level set function. Thus, the shape and topology optimization can be processed simultaneously while maintaining a smooth boundary. The moving structural boundary demands a finite element analysis adaptable to the dynamic boundary changes and meeting required accuracy. In this thesis, the key issues of finite element methods of structural analysis for level set optimization method are investigated and an approach to stress-constrained topology optimization is presented.;Firstly, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is introduced into the level set method structural shape and topology optimization for obtaining a considerably accurate and efficient result of finite element analysis. In fact, the XFEM is employed as a structural analysis method to solve the problems of strong discontinuities between material and void domain during the level set optimization process in order to avoid the time cost remeshing. To achieve a reasonably accurate result of finite element analysis in the element intersected by structural boundary, special numerical integral schemes of XFEM are studied. The partition method is adopted to divide the integral domain into sub-cells, in which Gauss quadrature is utilized to calculate the element stiffness matrix. For two-dimensional (2D) problems, the integral domain is divided into sub-triangles, and the Gauss quadrature points in each sub-triangle are used to evaluate the element stiffness matrix which is the sum of all contributions of these sub-triangles. For three-dimensional (3D) problems, the hexahedral element is decomposed into multiple tetrahedra, and the integral domain in each tetrahedron is divided into sub-tetrahedra for obtaining the Gauss quadrature points. Therefore, the stiffness of each tetrahedron is obtained by summing all contributions of the sub-tetrahedra, which means the hexahedral element stiffness matrix is the accumulation of element stiffness matrixes with all these tetrahedra.;Secondly, the methods for improving the computational accuracy and efficiency of XFEM are studied. First of all, the practical solutions for dealing with the small volume fraction element of the proposed XFEM are provided since this kind of situation may result in the accuracy losing of finite element analysis. Besides computational accuracy of structural analysis, the efficiency is another sufficiently important issue of structural optimization problem. Therefore, a new XFEM integral scheme without quadrature sub-cells is developed for improving the computational efficiency of XFEM compared to the XFEM integral scheme with partition method, which can yield similar accuracy of structural analysis while prominently reducing the computational cost. Numerical experiments indicate that this performance is excellent for level set method shape and topology optimization. Moreover, XFEM with higher order elements are involved to improve the accuracy of structural analysis compared to the corresponding lower order element. Consequently, the computational cost is increased, therefore, the balance of computational cost between FE system scale and the order of element is discussed in this thesis.;Thirdly, the reliability and advantages of the proposed XFEM schemes are illustrated with several 2D and 3D mean compliance minimization examples that are widely employed in the recent literature of structural topology optimization.;Finally, the stress-based topology optimization problems with the proposed XFEM schemes are investigated. Due to the accuracy of structural analysis, XFEM schemes have natural advantages for solving the stress-based topology optimization problems using the level set method. Moreover, the shape equilibrium constraint approach is developed to effectively control the local stress constraint. Some numerical examples are solved to prove the high-performance of the proposed shape equilibrium constraint approach and XFEM schemes in the stress-constrained topology optimization problem. Meanwhile, a new approach of stress isolation design is presented through topology optimization. The stress isolation problem is modeled into a topology optimization problem with multiple stress constraints in different regions. Numerical experiments demonstrate that this approach can change the force transmission paths to successfully realize stress isolation in the structure.;Keywords: Structural topology optimization, level set method, extended finite element method, accuracy and efficiency aspects, stress-constrained optimization, stress isolation.