TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF GEOMETRICALLY NONLINEAR STRUCTURES TRACING GIVEN LOAD-DISPLACEMENT CURVES

Abstract

To design structures involving nonlinear structural responses by the topology optimization method is still a challenging problem. Here, the structural topology optimization tracing nonlinear load-displacement curves is investigated by employing the element connectivity parametrization formulation as it is expected to deal with low-density element related numerical instability more effectively than the element density based formulation. After the formulation is given in the setting of the element connectivity parametrization, the sensitivity analysis for load-displacement curve tracing problems implemented with a discretized finite element model is presented. Several numerical problems are considered to address issues occurring in the topology optimization of nonlinear structures. Finally, the findings from this investigation on the topology optimization tracing nonlinear load-displacement trajectories and future work are summarized as concluding remarks.