Level set based topology optimization with stress constraints and consistent sensitivity analysis

For aeronautical applications of topology optimization, it is of importance to develop topology optimization techniques that can handle stress constraints in an efficient and accurate manner. The development of such topology optimization techniques is a challenging task due to the local nature of the stress constraints, their highly non-linear behaviour with respect to the design variables and the so-called singularity phenomenon. An accurate sensitivity analysis is essential for these type of problems with multiple constraints. In this paper, we propose a methodology of dealing with stress constraints in a level set based framework. In this framework, the level set function nodal values are related to element densities by an exact Heaviside projection. Stress relaxation and constraint aggregation techniques are used to deal with the singularity phenomenon and the local nature of the stress, respectively. A constrained optimization problem is then solved, in which the design variables (the level set nodal values) are updated in the projected steepest-descent direction, which is determined using a consistent sensitivity analysis. We demonstrate the effe4ctiveness of this technique on two numerical examples. The results show that the level set method with a consistent sensitivity analysis allows for the treatment of multiple constraints by using constrained optimization techniques.