Solving topology optimization problems by the Guide-Weight method

Abstract

Finding a good solution method for topology optimization problems is always paid attention to by the research field because they are subject to the large number of the design variables and to the complexity that occurs because the objective and constraint functions are usually implicit with respect to design variables. Guide-Weight method, proposed first by Chen in 1980s, was effectively and successfully used in antenna structures’ optimization. This paper makes some improvement to it so that it possesses the characteristics of both the optimality criteria methods and the mathematical programming methods. When the Guide-Weight method is applied into topology optimization, it works very well with unified and simple form, wide availability and fast convergence. The algorithm of the Guide-Weight method and the improvement on it are described; two formulations of topology optimization solved by the Guide-Weight method combining with SIMP method are presented; subsequently, three numerical examples are provided, and comparison of the Guide-Weight method with other methods is made.

Keywords

Guide-Weight method / topology optimization / SIMP method

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the discussion on the paper with professor Jianbin Du (Institute of Dynamics and Control, School of Aerospace, Tsinghua University).

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51075222), High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program) of China (No. 2010AA101404), and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China (No. NCET-08-0323).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg