Accidental discovery may revolutionize method for designing structures

An accidental find successful a probe task is to beryllium examined further and whitethorn effect successful wholly caller methods for designing.

Topology optimization is simply a recognized plan method that makes it imaginable to make wholly caller plan structures. The method has, for example, been utilized by DTU's researchers to show caller and lighter plan options for a fig of structures, including craft wings and the span platform connected suspension bridges. This is achieved by letting a supercomputer administer the worldly successful a defined country divided into tiny 'building blocks' known arsenic voxels. Each voxel tin either beryllium filled with worldly oregon beryllium 'air,' frankincense providing implicit state for creating a caller design.

Until now, it has not been imaginable to use the plan method to structures that person 1 oregon much interior interaction points wherever portion of the structure comes into interaction with different portion of the operation nether load. This obstacle present seems to person been overcome.

"We've discovered by accidental that—in the enactment with topology optimization—it is imaginable to compress the 'air' successful a voxel to an utmost degree. This abruptly makes it imaginable for the 'air' successful the simulations to transmit the interaction forces successful the aforesaid mode arsenic they would hap successful reality. This means that topology optimization tin beryllium utilized to plan structures with interior interaction points," says Associate Professor Konstantinos Poulios, who is portion of DTU Mechanical Engineering's internationally recognized probe radical successful topology optimization: the TopOpt group.

Practical applications

Based connected the caller knowledge, the researchers astatine DTU person received backing for a project—TOPCON—the intent of which is to make the caller method further. As determination is already a impervious of conception documenting that the method works, the adjacent measurement is to marque it much robust and effectual for ample calculations.

"In addition, we volition analyse to which products this benignant of topology optimization is applicable during the design phase. We already person a fig of options successful caput for which we request to research the imaginable further," says Konstantinos Poulios.

They see the portion of a robot that is to drawback and clasp connected to an object. Or the soles of a brace of moving shoes, which should preferably beryllium truthful coagulated that the runner avoids injuries portion besides ensuring that arsenic small vigor arsenic imaginable is mislaid erstwhile the ft hits the crushed and subsequently pushes disconnected again.

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More information: Gore Lukas Bluhm et al, Internal interaction modeling for finite strain topology optimization, Computational Mechanics (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s00466-021-01974-x