Topology Optimization

Name: Sagar S. Sakore Module: Design Optimization Student ID: 200581347 Module No: CIVE5971M

In the simplest term, the meaning of topology optimization is, solving problems in which one seeks to minimize or maximize a real function by systematically choosing the values of real or integer variables from within an allowed set Topology optimisation is a mathematical approach that optimises material layout within a given design space, for a given set of loads and boundary conditions such that the resulting layout meets a prescribed set of performance targets. For Civil engineers, topology optimization can be used at the concept design level in the design process which then can be improved n process for its performance and manufacture. The use of topology optimization can result in design development time, eliminates those lengthy iterations and hence can improve overall design performance. A. 2D Model of Cable Stayed Bridge In this section, 2D model of Cable Stayed Bridge has been formulated using HyperMesh v10.0 software of Altair Engineering. This model is then optimised for minimum compliance and by applying appropriate constraints over volume fraction. Procedure of the optimization is explained and finally conclusion has been made with optimized model of bridge depending upon the stress distribution. Data: Number of spans =2 Span Length = 45meters. Height of deck slab from ground level =10 meters Height of each tower =22 meters Material used = steel Youngs Modulus of steel = 2.1E+5 MPa Poissons Ratio = 0.3 Thickness of the plate = 100mm. Load bridge deck = 40kN/m inclusive all dead and live loads Thickness of deck = 200mm. Towers are placed at the centres of each span. Towers are assumed to be fixed at the base. Cables are assumed pinned at tower top. Bridge deck is assumed non-designable. Wind effect on the bridge is ignored.

Procedure:

1. Creating Component - Component named bridge is created. - No card image selected. - No property selected. - A new component will appear in modelling tree. 2. Geometry - According to assumed data, geometry has been produced first. First of all nodes are to be according to co-ordinate system are defined in the space. - These nodes are then joined by lines. - Separate surface is given to each triangle formed for the cables area, deck and two towers. - All temporary nodes are deleted. The final geometry will look like as shown in figure 1.

Figure1- Geometry of Model

3. Creating Finite Element Mesh - Selected all the surfaces (select size and bias radio button). - Put 500 is the size of quads type element. - All the model will be get meshed. - All the surfaces deleted after creating mesh. Figure 2 shows meshed geometry of the model. 4. Defining Material Properties - Material collector named steel is created. - Material type is assumed Isotropic and card image as MAT1. In model tree on left, new material collector named Steel appears. By clicking on the sign + on the left of material named steel and then right clicking on that material name, card edit selected. - Value of Youngs Modulus and Poissons Ratio as mentioned in data are entered under E and NU respectively.

5. Defining Properties to the model - Properties name Bridge Property has been created. - Type as 2D selected. - Card image PSHELL selected and material steel. - By selecting Card Edit, entered thickness as 100 under T. - Property named Bridge Property is then assigned to whole model that mean to the all elements.

Figure 2 Meshed Model

6. Creating Load Collectors - Two load collectors, named Loads and Supports are created. - No card image selected. 7. Defining Loads Load on bridge deck assumed to be 40 kN/m(including dead load and imposed load). This load converted into 19 equivalent point loads. Each point load is assumes to have a load of approximately 200kN. - In load collectors, by right clicking on loads, make it current. - Each point load is then placed at a distance of 10 nodes on the longest length of geometry as shown in figure 3. The positions of loads are shown in figure. - Magnitude of load is given 200000 (200kN) in global system with minus sign in y-direction which means vertically downwards. - Magnitude % is adjusted such that the arrow of loads will be visible. 8. Defining Boundary Conditions As given in data, the supports are assumed to be fixed at base and top has to be hinged. In load collectors, by right clicking on support make it current.

 Tick the window in front of all the dof 1 to 6. It means that, restraint is provided to the movement as well as to the rotation. Select the end nodes in bottom most row of each tower and create the supports at those nodes as shown in figure 3. Now untick the windows of dof 4 to 6. It means that restraint is provided only for movement and not for rotation. - Select the end nodes in top most row of each tower and create the supports at those nodes as shown in figure 3.

Figure 3 Model with Forces and Constraints

9. Defining Load Step - Load step named Loads Together is created. Load step is created to combine loads and boundary conditions and hence number of different analyses can be be performed on the same geometry and material in one series of run. - Type of load step is linear static. - SPC = support load collector selected. - LOAD = Loads load collector selected. 10. Defining Topology Optimization Problem - Devsar named steel plate is created. It means we are creating design variable named steel plate. A new design variable appeared in the modelling tree. - Type of design variable as PSHELL is selected with base thickness as 0.0. - Property as bridge property selected. Now to calculate responses, two responses namely Volume and Compl are created. For those responses, response type volumefrac and compliance is chosen respectively. Objective for response type minimum compliance is created. Dconstraints as constraint name Volume is created. Response volume is selected.

 Lower bound is entered as 0.00 and upper bound as 0.2. It means that volume of model at the end of optimization will be 0% to 20%. No change in opti control is made. 11. Running the Topology optimization Problem - OptiStruct is selected from main window. - Model is saved. - In run option, optimization selected. - OptiStruct is selected and let the optimization till the pop up window appears with the message, Process completed successfully. 12. Defining Non- Designable Area The deck area of the bridge is to be analysed as non- designable, so that the volume of the deck would not be affected due to optimization. As deck carries vehicles on the bridge, it cannot be optimized. - Returned back again to the main screen of HyperMesh. - New property named Bridge Non is created. - Selected type as 2D and card image as PSHELL. - New property appeared in the modelling tree on the left. - Now, new component named Non_design_bridge is created with different colour than that of with first component of designable bridge. Different colours are selected to identify the designable and non-designable part of the bridge. - Radio button tool is selected and then organize. Now to define the non-designable area, all the elements present in that 200mm thickness are selected. While selecting the elements, care to be taken that one should not select the elements which are in the area of the towers. So at the towers the deck elements should be selected with proper care and zooming. - After selection of the entire non-designable deck elements, click move. - Assigned the property Bridge Non to the non-designable elements. - In topology optimization, changes are updated. It is made sure that property named Bridge Non is not selected. Hence there will be no optimization of non-designable part of the bridge. Final model with non-designable area is as shown in figure 4. - Click OptiStruct and let the optimization till the message of Process completed successfully is pop up.

Figure 4 Indicating Non-designable Area

13. Review the Results - After successful completion of optimization, selected Hyperview. - Contour plot to view and top view selected to view the model in x-y plane. - Averaging method is changed to simple and kept rest of the parameters default and select apply. - After 27 iterations the optimized model in contour plot looks like figure 5.

Figure 5 Optimized Model in Contour View

- The material distribution can also be observed from iso-value plot. Iso-surface shows material distribution as shown in the figure 6.

Figure 6 Optimized Model in Iso View

Results: As we can see from figure 5, it shows two types of strings present in designable area. These lines indicate the probable positions of the cables to be provided. But the middle portion which is having half circle structure, indicates that the inadequate loading and span conditions given. There can be two solution to try for this problem, first one is to reduce the span size means to introduce the one more tower column in between both columns. The second solution can be to increase the height of column. The curvature of the cables indicates inadequate height also. Hence depending upon the site conditions, if foundation soil is strong enough, it will be economical solution to put one more tower column. For worst working conditions and to reduce the period of construction, increasing the height of the existing tower assumed would be beneficial.

B. 3D Model of High Rise Steel Building The same software is used for the modelling and optimization of 3D high rise steel structure which is used for 2D bridge above. The optimization is also done using the same principles as above. In this section procedure 3D modelling of the tower building is explained and optimization has been done. This model is quite more complicated to build structurally perfect and to draw the conclusion depending upon material and stress distribution. Data of Model The model selected for the optimization is of high rise building of 70meter height. But this is not an ordinary building in terms of its shape and loading. Due to architectural requirements for elevation, it is divided into height wise three parts. Bottom most part is of 30 meter high having outer dimensions as (20 X 25) meters. The dimensions of the building are as shown in figure 7 and 8. The inner shape of the building is like hexagon assumed to be same throughout the height. The rotated portion of the building between the heights of 30 meters to 50 meters has the same dimensions as bottom and top portion of the building. The middle portion of the structure is seems like rotated through 45degrees.
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Figure 7- 3D View of Structure

Structure is assumed to have very high wind load from y-direction. This load much larger than that of wind load in x-direction as well as vertical load assumed. Calculated design horizontal loads including wind as well as earthquake loads are given in Table 1. Total vertical load acting on the structure is 14000kN. Material is assumed to be steel having following properties: Youngs Modulus = 2.1E+5 MPa Poissons ratio = 0.3

Figure 8 Top View of Structure

Table 1 Design Horizontal Load acting on the Structure

Height of Structure from Ground Level (m) 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 Procedure: 2.1 Creating Collector - Collector named 3D Tower is created. - No card image selected. - No property selected.

Horizontal force (kN) X- Direction 2500 2500 2500 2700 2700 3000 3000 Y-Direction 5800 5800 5800 6000 6000 6000 6000

2.2 Creating Geometry As the structure has different orientations height wise, to accommodate the both orientations, two surfaces needed made for two kinds of orientations as shown in figure 9. - The nodes are created in two dimensional space assuming z-ordinate equal to zero. - The nodes are then joined with lines. - Then two surfaces are created as shown in figure. 2.3 Creating Finite Element Mesh - The mesh of size 500 selected. - Mesh type as quads selected. - By selecting all the surfaces mesh is created. As the building is 3 dimensional having height of 70 meters, it is required to have 3 dimensional mesh. - Select a drag in 3D radio button in right bottom of main screen.

Figure 9 Geometry (two surfaces are placed over each other)

- Drag Elements is selected. - Distance of 70000 (i. e.70m) Selected. - Entered 7 as on drag. - Clicked +drag. The model looks like as shown in figure 10. As it requires the hollow hexagon inside as working space, the inner elements needs to be deleted so that it will look like figure 8 in plan. - Pressing F2 key from the keyboard it is possible to delete elements. Here due to two surfaces with different orientation, two kinds of mesh elements are produced. So here to get the exact inside boundary as we requires, very much care to be required to delete every individual element. After deleting all unnecessary elements and creating entire hollow hexagon inside, the model looks as shown in figure 11.

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Figure 10 - 3D mesh 2.4 Defining Material Properties - Material collector named Tower created. - Type of material Isotropic selected. - Card image MAT1 selected. - In modelling tree, new collector named Tower appears. Right click on the material name, card edit the material for material property. - Entered value of Youngs Modulus under E and Poissons Ratio under NU. 2.5 Defining Properties to the Elements - Properties collector named tower_Property created. - Type as 3D selected. - Card image PSOLID selected and material steel. - Property named tower_Property is then assigned to all elements. 6. Creating Load Collectors - Two load collectors, named Loads and Supports are created. - No card image selected.

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Figure 11 Model after deleting non-required elements

7. Defining Loads Wind load acting on the high rise is more significant as compared to the vertical loads. The horizontal loads acting on the building including wind effect as well as earthquake effects is given in Table 1. Designed vertical load acting on the building is 14000kN. This load is applied on structure as seven equivalent point loads all acting on the periphery of the hexagon. The configuration of application of all these horizontal as well as vertical loads is as shown in figure 12. - In load collectors, by right clicking on loads, make it current. - Each point loads are then placed at a centre and two at either ends as shown in figure. - Magnitude of load is given in table 2 is entered in global system. - Horizontal loads are applied in x and y-directions and vertical loads are applied in z-direction with minus sign as is acting downwards. - Magnitude % is adjusted such that the arrow of loads will be visible.

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Figure 12 Forces and Constraints

8. Defining Boundary Conditions As given in data, the supports are assumed to be fixed and top has to be hinged. In load collectors, by right clicking on support make it current. Tick the window in front of all the dof 1 to 6. It means that, restraint is provided to the movement as well as to the rotation. Select the end nodes at the base of structure as shown in figure 13.

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Figure 13 - Conatraints

9. Defining Load Step - Load step named Loads Together is created. Load step is created to combine loads and boundary conditions and hence number of different analyses can be performed on the same geometry and material in one series of run. - Type of load step is linear static. - SPC = support load collector selected. - LOAD = Loads load collector selected. 10. Defining Topology Optimization Problem - Devsar named steel plate is created. It means we are creating design variable named steel plate. A new design variable appears in the modelling tree. - Type of design variable as PSHELL is selected with base thickness as 0.0. - Property as tower_property is selected. Now to calculate responses, two responses namely Volume and Compl are created. For those responses, response type volumefrac and compliance is chosen respectively. Objective for response type minimum compliance is created. Dconstraints as constraint name Volume is created. Response volume is selected. Lower bound is entered as 0.00 and upper bound as 0.3. It means that volume of model at the end of optimization will be 0% to 30%. No change in Opti Control is made. 11. Running the Topology optimization Problem

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- OptiStruct is selected from main window. - Model is saved. - In run option, optimization selected. - OptiStruct is selected and let the optimization till the pop up window appears with the message, Process completed successfully. 13. Review the Results - After successful completion of optimization, selected Hyperview. - In contour plot averaging method is changed to simple and kept rest of the parameters default and select apply. - After 20 iterations the optimized model in contour plot looks like figure 14.

Figure 14 Optimized Model in Contour View

- The material distribution can also be observed from iso-value plot. Iso-surface shows material distribution as shown in the figure 15.

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Figure 15 - Optimized Model in Iso View

As it can be seen from the figure 15, the volume got optimized from the structure is the volume present in the outer side of the hexagon and the optimized model is got left with almost hexagonal plan as shown in figure 15. Also this volume is not required as long as working area of the building is concerned. As long as construction of those portions are also difficult due to complex nature of building. Hence if we consider this area while designing and use it as same as other portion of the structure it will be quite costlier deal in terms of material cost, construction cost, time of structure etc. It also will also increase the self-weight of the structure as it will act like a cantilever. As this volume is just for the need of architectural purpose and to get the better elevation, if it is possible to use some other lighter and cheaper material at that portion, it will be economical and cheaper. It will also reduce the self-weight of the structure. There would not be any structural loading on it. It will just be a part which is having the significance of appearance only. To check out the difference in the stress and material distribution, that non-required portion of the building is assumed as non-designable and again the structure analysed for topology optimization. To do this, four corner portions of the structure is transferred to non-designable prisms as shown in figure 16. The difference in stress and material distribution is observed. It also checked the positive effect on the structure due to use of this non-designable space.

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Figure 16 Geometry of the Model with Non-designable Space

12. Defining Non- Designable Area The corner prisms of structure are to be analysed as non- designable space and topology optimization is to be done. - After successful completion of the topology optimization returned back again to the main screen of HyperMesh. - New property named Tower Non is created. - Selected type as 3D and card image as PSOLID. - New property appeared in the modelling tree on the left. - Now, new component named Non_design_tower is created with different colour than that of with first component of 3D Tower. Different colours are selected to identify the designable and non-designable part of the bridge. - Radio button tool is selected and then organize. Now to define the non-designable area, all the elements present in each prism are selected. Whilst selecting the elements, care to be taken that one should not select the elements which are in designable area. Elements to be deleted have chosen carefully considering the orientation of the element. After finishing the structure looks like figure 16. Figure 17 shows the structure with non-designable space with all forces and support constraints. - After selection of the entire non-designable prism elements, click move. - Assigned the property tower_non to the non-designable elements. - In topology optimization, changes are updated. It is made sure that property named tower_Non is not selected. Hence there will be no optimization of non-designable space of the structure. Final model with non-designable space is as shown in figure 16. - Click OptiStruct and let the optimization till the message of Process completed successfully is pop up.

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Figure 17

13. Review the Results - After successful completion of optimization, selected Hyperview. - Averaging method is changed to simple and kept rest of the parameters default and select apply. - After 18 iterations the optimized model in contour plot looks like figure18. - The material distribution can also be observed from iso-value plot. Iso-surface shows material distribution as shown in the figure 19 and 20. Results: If we go through figure 19 and 20, it would come to know that, after making the prism portions of the structure non-designable, the structure is showing the same kind of distribution of loads and material. The change here is the density of material at the bottom of this structure is decreased than the previous structure. Hence finally from the result given by topology optimization, we can say that making the prism portion this structure nondesignable, can proved to be lot beneficial to in all the terms of stresses, loads and then money and time.

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Figure 18 Optimized Model in Contour View

Figure 19 Iso-View

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Figure 20 Plan of Optimized Model

C. Usefulness of Topology Optimization Overall work above can give the idea about the huge number of applications of the topology optimization in the structures. According to me, the most important significance of the topology optimization for a structural engineer is the huge benefit of it at the concept design stage of the designing process of the structure. As mentioned above it can eliminate the lengthy iterations required to make structure comfortable with client, contractor and designer that means money, workmanship and simplicity. If we have a look over the 3D optimization of the building given above, the initial structure given by the architecture was complicated shape which after optimization left with a comparatively very simple hexagon shaped structure. If we have look over 2D optimization of the cable stayed bridge, at concept stage only we come to know about probable require number of tower columns and probable height to be chosen. After final selection of all, we can again cross check the feasibility of the design. Topology optimization can be applied to any kind of engineering structure and it gives a very good result as long you applied forces and constraints applied are correct. It can be used for all kind of complicated shaped structure which is tricky to design or analyse directly. For example, Spiral staircase, any architectural shapes etc So overall, it is very useful technique to use for Structural engineers in the current world of competition.

References Altair Engineering LAE Technology Conference 2007, Step Change in Design: Exploring Sixty Stent Design Variations Overnight.
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 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/topology_optimization
www.answer.com/topic/optimization Altair Engineering, Users Guide for HyperMesh.

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