• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2022

Recently, multi-material structural topology optimization is more critical because it provides reasonable solution to weight reduction challenges and can as well provide effective conceptual design. For conventional multi-material topology optimization (MMTO), the number of design variable increases when the number of candidate materials increases, and accordingly, a significant increase in computational time occurs. Therefore, MMTO with a single design variable, such as the phase section method (PSM) was proposed. This research is focused on improving the PSM, considering three major limitations: the composition ratio does not represent the area or volume ratio, design variables are not sufficiently concentrated to target values, and certain materials are created less than they are required. To address such limitations, the redefined composition ratio and adjusted parameters for better convergence are proposed. The validation of proposed modifications is verified via two- and three-dimensional numerical examples.