A Comparative Study of the Application of Different Commercial Software for Topology Optimization

Abstract

Topology optimization (TO) has been a popular design method among CAD designers in the last decades. This method optimizes the given design domain by minimizing/maximizing one or more objective functions, such as the structure’s stiffness, and at the same time, respecting the given constraints like the volume or the weight reduction. For this reason, the companies providing the commercial CAD/FEM platforms have taken this design trend into account and, thus, have included TO in their products over the last years. However, it is not clear which features, algorithms, or, in other words, possibilities the CAD designers do have using these software platforms. A comparative study among the most applied topology optimization software was conducted for this research paper. First, the authors developed an online database of the identified TO software in the form of a table. Interested CAD designers can access and edit its content, contributing in this way to the creation of an updated library of the available TO software. In addition, a deeper comparison among three commercial software platforms—SolidWorks, ANSYS Mechanical, and ABAQUS—was implemented using three common case studies—(1) a bell crank lever, (2) a pillow bracket, and (3) a small bridge. These models were designed, optimized, and validated numerically, as well as compared for their strength. Finally, the above software was evaluated with respect to optimization time, optimized designs, and TO possibilities and features.

A Review of Topology Optimisation Software for Additive Manufacturing: Capability Comparison

“…III. Software Review Tyflopouls and Steinert [12] have analysed different stand-alone and integrated software for topology optimisation purposes. They reported that about 31% of software is released under open source licence and freely available for users.…”

“…To solve the optimisation problem [10], several algorithmic approaches, such as solid isotropic material with penalisation (SIMP) or level set function (LSF), are developed and included into majority of today's computer-aided topology optimisation software [11]. Topology optimisation software, whether integrated into software or standalone [12], follows a defined methodological approach that generates a geometrical structure with an optimal density distribution after several iteration runs. In this paper, three topology optimisations included in Ansys Mechanical [13]- [18], Fusion360 [19]- [24], Solidworks Simulate [25]- [29], and stand-alone nTopology [30]- [33] are analysed and compared in terms of implementation and performance capabilities.…”

Topological Optimization of Interconnection of Multilayer Composite Structures

“…Among the algorithms used for topological optimization, such as homogenization [29], SIMP [30], ESO [31], and the RAMP approach [32], SIMP and RAMP methods are the most popular. While the SIMP method implies high efficiency in a narrow range of problems, the RAMP method is a stable method that can be used in a wider class of problems [33]. Therefore, the authors of this paper used the RAMP method.…”

Case Study of Additively Manufactured Mountain Bike Stem

“…Because of the growing interest in design for additive technologies, topology optimisation or other mathematical designing methods are implemented into standard CAD software. The main advantage is that the software does not require programming language knowledge, making it more suitable for a wider group of designers [ 9 ].…”