Topology optimization of adaptive fluid-actuated cellular structures with arbitrary polygonal motor cells

Abstract

This paper mainly focuses on the fast and efficient design method for plant bioinspired fluidic cellular materials and structures composed of polygonal motor cells. Here we developed a novel structural optimization method with arbitrary polygonal coarse-grid elements based on multiscale finite element frameworks. The fluidic cellular structures are meshed with irregular polygonal coarse-grid elements according to their natural size and the shape of the imbedded motor cells. The multiscale base functions of solid displacement and hydraulic pressure are then constructed to bring the small-scale information of the irregular motor cells to the large-scale simulations on the polygonal coarse-grid elements. On this basis, a new topology optimization method based on the resulting polygonal coarse-grid elements is proposed to determine the optimal distributions or number of motor cells in the smart cellular structures. Three types of optimization problems are solved according to the usages of the fluidic cellular structures. Firstly, the proposed optimization method is utilized to minimize the system compliance of the load-bearing fluidic cellular structures. Second, the method is further extended to design biomimetic compliant actuators of the fluidic cellular materials due to the fact that non-uniform volume expansions of fluid in the cells can induce elastic action. Third, the optimization problem focuses on the weight minimization of the cellular structure under the constraints for the compliance of the whole system. Several representative examples are investigated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed polygon-based topology optimization method of the smart materials.

Plant-inspired adaptive structures and materials for morphing and actuation: a review

“…e They further refined this multiscale finite element model [87] and applied it to design morphing wings that consist of many fluid capsules with topologically optimized shapes [88] (figure 3(d)). It is worth noting that osmotic pressurization operates based on fluid, which might add weight to the morphing wing systems.…”

Topology Optimization Design Parameter Enhanced by Univariate Dynamic Encoding Algorithm for Searches

“…The second one is material optimization to optimize material. The last one is the topology optimization [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] to optimize the structure of the object. It is easy to confuse topological optimization with shape optimization.…”

“…or to change the dimensions. Several researchers have researched the methodology of the topology optimization [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The paper [1] summarized the current knowledge about numerical instabilities such as checkerboards, mesh-dependence and local minima occur-ring in applications of the topology optimization method.…”

“…In the paper [7], the material interpolation scheme and sensitivity filter functions were introduced to compensate for the imperfection of traditional bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization. The above-mentioned topology optimization has been successfully applied in various industrial fields such as adaptive fluid actuated cellular structures with arbitrary polygonal motor cells [8]. architecture [9], full-scale airplane wing morphogenesis [10].…”

Development and Testing of Woven FRP Flexure Hinges for Pressure-Actuated Cellular Structures with Regard to Morphing Wing Applications

“…The concept of adaptive pressure-controlled cellular structures for large one-dimensional actuation strain was examined by Luo et al [15,16]. Lv et al introduced a design method for adaptive fluid-actuated cellular structures with polygonal motor cells using a multiscale topology optimization method [17]. Several more approaches with fluidic actuation for large deformation were recently published in the field of soft robotics [18,19].…”