TY - JOUR
T1 - GRAND3 — Ground structure based topology optimization for arbitrary 3D domains using MATLAB
AU - Zegard, Tomás
AU - Paulino, Glaucio H.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors appreciate constructive comments and insightful suggestions from the anonymous reviewers. We are thankful to the support from the US National Science Foundation under grant CMMI #1335160. We also acknowledge the support from SOM (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP) and from the Donald B. and Elizabeth M. Willett endowment at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Any opinion, finding, conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
PY - 2015/12/1
Y1 - 2015/12/1
N2 - Since its introduction, the ground structure method has been used in the derivation of closed–form analytical solutions for optimal structures, as well as providing information on the optimal load–paths. Despite its long history, the method has seen little use in three–dimensional problems or in problems with non–orthogonal domains, mainly due to computational implementation difficulties. This work presents a methodology for ground structure based topology optimization in arbitrary three–dimensional (3D) domains. The proposed approach is able to address concave domains and with the possibility of holes. In addition, an easy–to–use implementation of the proposed algorithm for the optimization of least–weight trusses is described in detail. The method is verified against three–dimensional closed–form solutions available in the literature. By means of examples, various features of the 3D ground structure approach are assessed, including the ability of the method to provide solutions with different levels of detail. The source code for a MATLAB implementation of the method, named GRAND3 — GRound structure ANalysis and Design in 3D, is available in the (electronic) Supplementary Material accompanying this publication.
AB - Since its introduction, the ground structure method has been used in the derivation of closed–form analytical solutions for optimal structures, as well as providing information on the optimal load–paths. Despite its long history, the method has seen little use in three–dimensional problems or in problems with non–orthogonal domains, mainly due to computational implementation difficulties. This work presents a methodology for ground structure based topology optimization in arbitrary three–dimensional (3D) domains. The proposed approach is able to address concave domains and with the possibility of holes. In addition, an easy–to–use implementation of the proposed algorithm for the optimization of least–weight trusses is described in detail. The method is verified against three–dimensional closed–form solutions available in the literature. By means of examples, various features of the 3D ground structure approach are assessed, including the ability of the method to provide solutions with different levels of detail. The source code for a MATLAB implementation of the method, named GRAND3 — GRound structure ANalysis and Design in 3D, is available in the (electronic) Supplementary Material accompanying this publication.
KW - Ground structure method
KW - Intersection tests
KW - Three-dimensional optimal structures
KW - Topology optimization of three–dimensional trusses
KW - Unstructured meshes
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U2 - 10.1007/s00158-015-1284-2
DO - 10.1007/s00158-015-1284-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84949624893
SN - 1615-147X
VL - 52
SP - 1161
EP - 1184
JO - Structural Optimization
JF - Structural Optimization
IS - 6
ER -