Effect of different fatigue constraints on optimal topology of structures with minimum weight

• Published in: Engineering structures 2023-08, Vol.288, p.116149, Article 116149
• Main Authors: Nabaki, Khodamorad, Shen, Jianhu, Huang, Xiaodong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: BESO; Fatigue failure; Mechanic performance; Topology optimization
• ISSN: 0141-0296; 1873-7323
• DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2023.116149

•Several important design criteria have been suggested on designing optimal structures with minimum weight and without fatigue failure.•Several case studies have been provided to illustrate the effects of different fatigue criteria on optimal structures with minimum weight.•The effectiveness of the those criteria is partially proved through comparison with conventional stiffness optimization on various examples.•The results and suggestions are based on reliable bi-directional structural optimization method and has great potential to be used in various structures involving a possible fatigue failure. As one of the failure criteria with ascending importance for engineering problems, fatigue has recently been considered in topology optimization and different optimal topologies have been obtained which satisfying one or two fatigue failure criteria considered in the codes. The topologies and performance of those optimal designs are different if a different fatigue criterion is considered. Those difference may bring some concerns when those topologies are used in the real practice. In this paper, three different fatigue criteria are considered as constraints in structural optimization based on bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization. A modified p-norm approach is employed to decrease the computational cost for all examples. Comparisons of topologies and performance of the resultant optimal designs together with that from traditional compliance minimization designs clarify the effect of different fatigue criteria on those optimal designs for different design problems. These results will provide useful reference for engineers to design structures to avoid high frequency fatigue failure.