US 11,914,934 B2
Active region adaptations for design domains in topology optimizations
Lucia Mirabella, Plainsboro, NJ (US); Suraj Ravi Musuvathy, Princeton Junction, NJ (US); and Yu-Chin Chan, Evanston, IL (US)
Assigned to Siemens Industry Software Inc., Plano, TX (US)
Appl. No. 17/273,587
Filed by Siemens Industry Software Inc., Plano, TX (US)
PCT Filed Jul. 30, 2019, PCT No. PCT/US2019/044105
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 4, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/055516, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 19, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/731,278, filed on Sep. 14, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0200921 A1, Jul. 1, 2021
Int. Cl. G06F 30/23 (2020.01); G06F 111/04 (2020.01); G06F 111/02 (2020.01)
CPC G06F 30/23 (2020.01) [G06F 2111/02 (2020.01); G06F 2111/04 (2020.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
by a computing system:
identifying a design domain for which to optimize a topology based on an objective function, the design domain comprising a bounding box for an unknown topology discretized into multiple design elements;
determining an active region for the design domain, the active region comprising a selected set of active design elements in the design domain, wherein determining the active region for the design domain comprises:
performing finite element analysis (FEA) for design elements in the bounding box based on the objective function;
computing sensitivity values for design elements in the bounding box; and
selecting, as the active design elements of the active region, design elements in the bounding box that exceed a bounding sensitivity threshold;
iteratively adapting the active region, including by, for a given adaptation cycle:
expanding the design domain to include branch design elements within a threshold element distance from the active design elements in the active region;
performing the FEA on the expanded design domain based on the objective function, including computing a respective sensitivity value based on the objective function for the design elements of the expanded design domain;
determining an adapted active region by:
activating, as active design elements, any of the branch design elements with a computed sensitivity value that exceeds an active sensitivity threshold; and
deactivating, from the active region, any active design element with a design variable value that changes less than a threshold amount from a previous adaptation cycle; and
setting the adapted active region as the active region for a subsequent adaptation cycle; and
continuing to iteratively adapt the active region until an optimization ending criterion is satisfied.