Topology Optimization of Structures Using an Adaptive Element-Free Galerkin Method

This paper proposes a topology optimization method based on an adaptive element-free Galerkin (EFG) method. Since there are a large number of discrete design variables in the meshless based topology optimization, the adaptive EFG method is included to improve the computational efficiency. The topology optimization problem is formulated as a mean compliance design of structures, in which the nodal densities are regarded as design variable. In the proposed method, the criteria of adding node, the scheme of adaptively inserting nodes, and the method of updating the variable for any new node are discussed. A typical example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed topology optimization method using the adaptive EFG method.