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Topology optimization is one of the most intensively developed and frequently implemented in practice engineering design tools. The idea is to find within a defined design domain the distribution of the material that is optimal according to the assumed criteria. The typical solutions regard structures made of one material, but allowing for implementation of multi-material structures may open new possibilities for improving existing solutions. The conventional approach is a redistribution of material or materials within a whole design domain. This concept is extended in the present paper by introducing the idea of ‘subdomain oriented multi-material topology optimization’. The design domain is divided into regions for which different types of material are defined and through the optimization procedure the multi-material structure is created. The aim of the present research is therefore to find optimal topologies, under restriction that redistribution of material can be performed only within subdomains selected for employed materials. What is important, in terms of practical applications, it is possible to impose constraints on volume fraction of each defined material. Obtained results of preliminary numerical studies show, that this approach produces different results as compared with classical single-material problems. In addition, included self-weight loading makes considered design problems more practical and realistic. As the optimization tool efficient and versatile heuristic method based on Cellular Automata (CA) concept is utilized. The main advantage of the CA algorithm is that, it is an easy to implement, fast convergent technique and usually requires less iterations, as compared to other approaches, to achieve the optimal solution. |
