1202 Simple mesh adaptation by PDE based distance function : Application to topology optimization

Abstract

In this paper we propose a partial differential equation (PDE) to calculate distance from finite element nodes to a threshold value of a variable. The PDE is applied to reduce the grey transition area in topology optimization based on a density approach. The density approach essentially generates grey transition areas, which appear around interfaces between different phases. As the grey areas may affect numerical results and lead to undesirable optimization results, they have to be reduced. For reduction of the grey areas, finite element nodes are repositioned by using the distance from the interfaces calculated by the PDE. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a minimum compliance problem is solved.