Topology synthesis of thermomechanical compliant mechanisms with geometrical nonlinearities using meshless method

  • Authors:

  • Yi-Xian Du;Li-Ping Chen;Qi-Hua Tian;Zheng-Jia Wu

  • Affiliations:

  • College of Mechanical and Material Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, Hubei, PR China and National CAD Support Software Engineering Research Center, Huazhong University of ...;National CAD Support Software Engineering Research Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, PR China;College of Mechanical and Material Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, Hubei, PR China;College of Mechanical and Material Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, Hubei, PR China

  • Venue:
  • Advances in Engineering Software
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

The element-free Galerkin (EFG) method, one of the important meshless methods, is integrated into topology optimization and a new topology optimization method for designing thermomechanical actuated compliant mechanisms with geometrical nonlinearities is presented. The meshless method is employed to discretize the governing equations and the bulk density field. Using meshless method to analyze the thermomechanical model is better consistent with the natural behavior of large-displacement compliant mechanisms than using the standard finite element method (FEM). The optimization formulation is developed using the SIMP and meshless methods. The nonlinear design sensitivity analysis is performed by incorporating the adjoint approach into the meshless method. The filtering of the sensitivity developed corrects the topology including few discontinuous scattered points. The geometrically nonlinear design sensitivity analysis is performed by incorporating the adjoint approach into the meshless method. The availability of the proposed method is demonstrated by designing compliant actuators in which both linear and nonlinear modeling are considered.