Development of a material mixing method for topology optimization of a structure with multiple thermal criteria

Abstract

A material mixing method to obtain an optimal topology for a structure in a thermal environment was suggested. This method is based on Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO). The proposed material mixing method extends the ESO method to a mixing several materials for a structure in the multicriteria optimization of thermal flux and thermal stress. To do this, the multiobjective optimization technique was implemented. The overall efficiency of material usage was measured in terms of the combination of thermal stress levels and heat flux densities by using a combination strategy with weighting factors. Optimal topologies having multiple thermal criteria for a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate were presented to illustrate validity of the suggested material mixing method. It was found that the suggested method works very well for the multicriteria topology optimization.