Evolutionary methods for topology optimisation of continuous structures with design dependent loads

Evolutionary structural optimisation (ESO) method is based on the idea that by gradually removing inefficient materials, the structure evolves towards an optimum. Bi-directional ESO (BESO) allows for adding efficient materials in the evolution. This paper investigates the ESO and BESO methods in solving the topology optimisation of continua structures with a constraint on the global stiffness. Based on the work on stiffness optimisation with fixed load conditions, this paper focuses on problems considering design dependent loads. The dependence can be due to transmissible loads, inclusions of structural self weight and surface loads. Sensitivity analysis and evolutionary procedure for problems of fixed load conditions are modified to accommodate the load variation condition. A number of examples are presented for verification. The results demonstrate that ESO and BESO are effective in solving the optimisation with design dependent loads. BESO has the flexibility of balancing solution quality and computing time. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.