Mechanical problems: About

Introduction

New tools allowing the inclusion of mechanical responses and constraints in Free-shape and Topology Optimization problems are now available in Flux 2023.1.

The consideration of mechanical responses and constraints improves the results yielded by an optimization problem when compared to the optimization of a device based solely on electromagnetic quantities. Indeed, limiting the mechanical stress to not exceed the yield stress of the material or enforcing a mechanical compliance requirement in the parts subjected to optimization lead to more realistic and attainable designs. The design issued from such an optimization is more likely to be manufacturable and to result impervious to mechanical failure.

To benefit from mechanical responses and constraints in an optimization problem in Flux 2D, the user must describe a Mechanical problem and append its definition to the main Optimization problem.

Software requirements

The requirements for using this feature are similar to the ones described in the Topology Optimization chapter of this release note. For further details on the versions of OptiStruct and on how to configure Flux Supervisor, please refer to the Software requirements section of that chapter.

Current limitations