| Abstract |
Energy efficiency and sustainability are some of the major challenges in our society. In structural design, minimizing the weight and
optimizing the performance can lead to great improvements in environmental impact. In this sense, topology optimization of structures
allows one to design high performance structural elements in a range of engineering fields such as aeronautics, civil engineering and
mechanical engineering. When put together with the rise of additive manufacturing, topology optimization will become a very powerful tool
for the design of the structures of the future.
In order to design efficient structural elements, accurate and high performance computer optimization tools are required. However,
computer simulations which make use of numerical methods for the topology optimization process are still at an early stage, and capable
to deal in general only with static loads and small deformation cases. Several new developments are required which will allow to find
topologically optimal geometries in the case of structures subject to dynamic loads in a large strains setting. In particular, this project is
going to focus on the development of a strategy for the case of structures subject to fluid-structure interaction.
New methodologies are necessary in order to successfully develop a numerical method capable of dealing with this highly complex
problem. In the first place, a methodology for simulating dynamical three-dimensional solids subject to large strains needs to be developed,
also including the limit of incompressible materials. The methodology has to be coupled with the numerical simulation tools for fluid
structure interaction, and in turn, with a topological optimization algorithm.
Due to the fact that the numerical simulation of the topology optimization of structures subject to the effect of fluid-structure interaction is
very expensive from the computational point of view, new developments need to be addressed with the objective of reducing the
computational cost to an admissible level. These developments will comprise the implementation of parallel algorithms for highperformance
computing clusters, the use of adaptive refinement techniques, and also the coupling with reduced order modelling strategies. |