Improving the efficiency of large scale topology optimization through on-the-fly reduced order model construction

Topology optimization of large scale structures is computationally expensive, notably because of the cost of solving the equilibrium equations at each iteration. Reduced order models by projection, also known as reduced basis models, have been proposed in the past for alleviating this cost. We propose here a new method for coupling reduced basis models with topology optimization to improve the efficiency of topology optimization of large scale structures. The novel approach is based on constructing the reduced basis on the fly, using previously calculated solutions of the equilibrium equations. The reduced basis is thus adaptively constructed and enriched, based on the convergence behavior of the topology optimization. A direct approach and an approach with adjusted sensitivities are described, and their algorithms provided. The approaches are tested and compared on various 2D and 3D minimum compliance topology optimization benchmark problems. Computational cost savings by up to a factor of 12 are demonstrated using the proposed methods. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.