Different effects of economic and structural performance indexes on model construction of structural topology optimization

The objective and constraint functions related to structural optimization designs are classified into economic and performance indexes in this paper.The influences of their different roles in model construction of structural topology optimization are also discussed.Furthermore,two structural topology optimization models,optimizing a performance index under the limitation of an economic index,represented by the minimum compliance with a volume constraint(MCVC)model,and optimizing an economic index under the limitation of a performance index,represented by the minimum weight with a displacement constraint(MWDC)model,are presented.Based on a comparison of numerical example results,the conclusions can be summarized as follows:(1)under the same external loading and displacement performance conditions,the results of the MWDC model are almost equal to those of the MCVC model;(2)the MWDC model overcomes the difficulties and shortcomings of the MCVC model;this makes the MWDC model more feasible in model construction;(3)constructing a model of minimizing an economic index under the limitations of performance indexes is better at meeting the needs of practical engineering problems and completely satisfies safety and economic requirements in mechanical engineering,which have remained unchanged since the early days of mechanical engineering.