Topology and material orientation optimization based on evolution equations

Many modern high-performance materials have inherent anisotropic elastic properties and its local material orientation can be considered to be an additional design variable for the topology optimization 1–3]. We extend our previous model for topology optimization with variational controlled growth 4–6] for linear elastic anisotropic materials, for which the material orientation is introduced as an additional design variable. We solve the optimization problem purely with the principles of thermodynamics by minimizing the Gibbs energy. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)