Title: Shape optimisation of two-dimensional structures using isogeometric analysis

Authors: Vinay K. Ummidivarapu; Hari K. Voruganti

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Telangana, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Telangana, India

Abstract: Structural shape optimisation is the important stage of a design process. It reduces the overall design cycle time, weight and cost of the structure. The main modules of structural shape optimisation are geometric modelling, analysis technique and optimisation procedure. Since shape optimisation is an iterative process, it is recommended that all the three modules bear a similar framework. In the traditional FEA-based shape optimisation, the geometric modelling and analysis modules are based on different frameworks and lead to difficulties like meshing, remeshing, loss of geometric data, abnormal optimal shapes, etc. Isogeometric analysis (IGA) would resolve the above issues by integrating both modelling and analysis into a unified framework. In this work, isogeometric analysis is applied for shape optimisation of two-dimensional structures and the results are presented. The IGA optimised results show that the difficulties of FEA-based shape optimisation are eliminated. Numerical results indicate the applicability of the method.

Keywords: isogeometric analysis; IGA; shape optimisation; structural analysis; non-uniform rational B-splines; NURBS; finite elements; meshless method; genetic algorithm.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESMS.2017.085080

International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation, 2017 Vol.9 No.3, pp.169 - 176

Received: 15 Jun 2016
Accepted: 22 Feb 2017
Published online: 10 Jul 2017 *

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