Journal
STRUCTURAL AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY OPTIMIZATION
Volume 64, Issue 4, Pages 2805-2823Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00158-021-03009-8
Keywords
Truss layout optimization; Web-app; Heaviside simplification; Topology optimization; Geometry optimization
Categories
Funding
- Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/N023471/1]
- follow up Knowledge Exchange grant
- EPSRC [EP/N023471/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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The new interactive truss layout optimization web-app is versatile and efficient, optimizing designs through numerical and geometry processes while providing user control over complexity and structural volume trade-offs. It supports unstable intermediate truss structures and can be used in educational and practical engineering settings.
A new interactive truss layout optimization web-app has been developed for educational use. This has been designed to be used on a range of devices, from mobile phones to desktop PCs. Truss designs are first generated via numerical layout optimization and then rationalized via geometry optimization. It is then shown that these designs can be simplified using a computationally inexpensive process that allows the user to control the trade-off between complexity and structural volume. The process involves the use of smooth Heaviside representations of member existence variables, with nodal slack forces employed that allow unstable intermediate truss structures. Full details of the web-app are provided in this contribution, from underlying formulation to cloud computing implementation. A range of numerical examples are used to demonstrate the efficacy of the web-app, and to show how it can potentially be used in educational and practical engineering settings.
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