Bubble-Method: A Special Strategy for Finding Best Possible Initial Designs
Abstract The position and the arrangement of structural elements in a component — also defined as its topology — decisively influences its deformation and stress behaviour. When developing a new component it is essential to find an optimal topology. The objective of topology optimization is to substitute the existing intuitive design of variants by mathematical-mechanical strategies in the design phase and thus to make it more efficient. In this paper a special method is introduced, the basic idea of which is to iteratively position new holes, so-called bubbles, in the structure of a component. Therefore, the method is called “Bubble Method”. The bubbles are iteratively positioned by means of various methods, among others by solving a variational problem. The insertion of bubbles signifies a change of the topology class. For the different topology classes, hierarchically subordinate shape optimizations are carried out which determine the optimal shape of the specific new bubble together with the other variable boundaries of the component. The advantages of such a topology optimization method in comparison to traditional, intuitive variant designs are demonstrated by means of a panel-truss-structure.