• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.2 s.245
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• pp.164-170
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• 2006

To prevent the numerical instabilities in topology optimization, continuous approximation of material distribution (CAMD) is proposed to the homogenization design method (HDM) and the simple isotropic material with penalization (SIMP) method. The continuous FE approximation of design variables including high order elements is applied to the formulation of SIMP method. Numerical examples are presented to compare the efficiency of CAMD both in HDM and SIMP.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.9 s.252
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• pp.1102-1109
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• 2006

In this paper, the polarization of piezoelectric materials is considered to improve actuation since the piezoelectric polarization has influences on the performance of the actuator. The topology design of compliant mechanism can be formulated as an optimization problem of material distribution in a fixed design domain and continuous approximation of material distribution (CAMD) method has demonstrated its effectiveness to prevent the numerical instabilities in topology optimization. The optimization problem is formulated to maximize the mean transduction ratio subject to the total volume constraints and solved using a sequential linear programming algorithm. The effect of CAMD and the performance improvement of actuator are confirmed through Moonie actuator and PZT suspension design.