Topology Optimization for Polymeric Foam Shock-Absorbing Structure Using Hybrid Cellular Automata

Abstract

Foam shock-absorbing structures such as cushioned packages are often utilized to protect various products from mechanical shock and vibration during transportation. The goal of packaging design engineers is to design a cushioned package structure that improves the shock-absorbing performance and minimizes the volume of the package. Some optimization techniques, combined with computational simulation, provide engineers with a way to design an optimal structure. In this paper, we propose a modified topology optimization method suitable for a polymeric foam shock-absorbing structure under dynamic drop loads in multiple directions. Our approach uses a heuristic topology optimization method, known as the Hybrid Cellular Automata (HCA). The HCA algorithm uniformly distributes internal energy density and controls the relative density of Cellular Automata (CAs) making up the design space. This allows the algorithm to maintain or increase the performance of shock absorption and to decrease the amount of material. In particular, this paper presents a modified Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) model for foam materials, which parameterizes the design region and interpolates the material properties. We attempt to optimize a simple bottom-cushioned package for a refrigerator by using the proposed foam SIMP model with commercial software: LS-DYNA for drop dynamic simulation and LS-OPT/Topology for the HCA algorithm. Drop simulation and topology optimization are performed considering multiple drop-directions. As a result, our method removes elements that are not related to the shock-absorption performance and provide an optimal cushioning structure using foam material.