• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.213-221
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• 2011

In this study, we discussed the weight reducing of a urban railway-car body, in particular, of the Korean EMU, by optimizing topology and size of aluminum extrusion profiles. The heaviest parts of aluminum railway-car bodies, i.e., the base plate of underframe and side panels of side frame composed of double skin structures are considered for optimization. Topology optimization process is applied to obtain get an optimized rib structure for the base plate. The thickness of ribs and plates of the topologically optimized base plate and the existing side panel are also optimized by employing the size optimization process. The results are verified by comparing the maximum von Mises stresses and maximum deformation in the case of the existing design with those in the case of the optimized design. It is shown that the weight of a base plate and side panel can be reduced by 12% and that the weight of the whole car body can be reduced by 8.5%.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.401-412
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• 1999

The purpose of this paper is to show how the Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO) algorithm developed by Xie and Steven can be extended to optimal design problems of thin shells subjected to thermal loading. This extension simply incorporates an evolutionary iterative process of thermoelastic thin shell finite element analysis. During the evolution process, lowly stressed material is gradually eliminated from the structure. This paper presents a number of examples to demonstrate the capabilities of the ESO algorithm for solving topology optimization and thickness distribution problems of thermoelastic thin shells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.343-347
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• 2008

Design of shape for visco-elastic vibration isolation elements, which are very cost-effective and so popular in many applications is frequently based on experiences, intuitions, or trial and errors. Such traditions in shape design make it difficult for drastic changes or new concepts to come out. In this paper, both topological method and shape optimization method are combined together to find out a most desirable isolator shape efficiently by using two commercial engineering programs. ABAQUS and MATLAB. The procedure is divided into two steps. At the first step, a topology optimization method is employed to find an initial shape. where density of either 0 or 1 for finite elements is used for physical realizability. At the second step, based on the initial shape, finer tuning of the shape is done by boundary movement method. An illustration of the procedure will be presented for a mount of an air-conditioner compressor system and the effectiveness will be discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.7 s.238
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• pp.990-997
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• 2005

The objective of this paper is to present the element connectivity parameterization (ECP) fur three dimensional problems. In the ECP method, a continuum structure is viewed as discretized finite elements connected by zero-length elastic links whose stiffness values control the degree of inter-element connectivity. The ECP method can effectively avoid the formation of the low-density unstable elements. These elements appear when the standard element density method is used for geometrical nonlinear problems. In this paper, this ECP method developed fur two-dimensional problems is expanded to the design of three-dimensional geometrical nonlinear structures. Among others, the automatic procedure converting standard finite element models to the models suitable for the ECP approach is developed and applied for optimization problems defined on general three-dimensional design domains.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1613-1620
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• 2001

This study is focused on the application of the homogenization design method (HDM) to reduce the vibration level of a structure excited by magnetic harmonic farces. This is accomplished by obtaining the optimal material distribution in a design domain to minimize the frequency response caused by the magnetic harmonic excitation. The Maxwell stress method is used to compute the magnetic force and the HDM is applied leer the optimization. The developed method is applied to a simple pole model that is excited by the harmonic bending farce caused by the current around an adjacent stator. Results shows that the HDM is valid to minimize the frequency response.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1250-1255
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• 2008

Design of shape fur visco-elastic vibration isolation elements, which are very cost-effective and so popular in many applications is fi?equently based on experiences, intuitions, or trial and errors. Such traditions in shape design make it difficult for drastic changes or new concepts to come out. In this paper, both topological method and shape optimization method are combined together to find out a most desirable isolator shape efficiently by using two commercial engineering programs, ABAQUS and MATLAB. The procedure is divided into two steps. At the first step, a topology optimization method is employed to find an initial shape, where density of either 0 or 1 for finite elements is used fur physical realizability. At the second step, based on the initial shape, finer tuning of the shape is done by boundary movement method. An illustration of the procedure is presented fur a mount of an air-conditioner compressor system and the effectiveness is discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.3 s.234
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• pp.503-510
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• 2005

In this paper, the topology optimization of inner-wall stiffener of cylindrical containers for the use as a rocket fuel tank is presented. Such structures for space mission should have high stiffness against the buck]ins while their weight should be maintained low from the viewpoint of cost and performance. Therefore, in the present work the reciprocal of critical buckling load is adopted as an objective function and the total mass of stiffener is constrained to a prescribed value. Due to the restriction of computational resources a section of cylindrical container is topologically optimized and this result is repeated to obtain the full design. Also, for manufacturability the concept of periodic topology pattern in design domain is newly introduced. In the numerical examples, the results by the proposed approach are investigated and compared with those of isogrid design.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 2015

This paper describes a weight-reduction design method for the car bodies of a double deck high-speed train (service speed of 300 km/h). The method uses lightweight materials and a topology optimization technique. In this study, aluminum extrusions and sandwich composites were selected as the best materials to reduce the weight of the car body. The topology optimization technique was used to determine which car body parts could be made of the sandwich composites to achieve additional weight savings. The results of the topology optimization analysis showed that sandwich composites could be used for secondary car body members such as the roof and the second underframe. Also, it was found that a car body composed of aluminum extruded parts and sandwich composites could weigh up to 14% less than a car body made of only aluminum extrusions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.473-486
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• 2023

Nowadays, urban centers are increasingly vertical, making architects and engineers look for more efficient tools to analyze the effects of wind on tall buildings. Topology optimization can be used as an efficient tool for the design of bracing systems. Therefore, this work obtained the wind loads that act in the CAARC building, following the Brazilian standard NBR 6123/1988 and using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Four loading situations were considered, using the SIMP and BESO methods to optimize two-dimensional structures. A comparison between the SIMP and BESO methods is presented, showing the differences in the geometry of the solution found by both methods, the percentage variation in the objective function values and the dimensionless processing time. The solutions obtained through the loads obtained by the Brazilian standard are also compared with the numerical solutions obtained by CFD. The results show that the BESO method presented more rigid structures compared to the SIMP method. The bracing structures obtained with the SIMP method always present similar patterns in the distribution and quantity of bars, in contrast to the BESO method where no characteristic topology pattern was observed. It was concluded that even though the structures obtained by the BESO method presented greater stiffness, the SIMP method was less susceptible to the methodology used for the determination of wind loads. Additionally, it was evident the great potential that the combination topology optimization and computational wind engineering have in the design of bracing systems of high functional and aesthetic standards.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2016

Domes are architectural and elegant structures which cover a vast area with no interrupting columns in the middle, and with suitable shapes can be also economical. Domes are built in a wide variety of forms and specialized terms are available to describe them. According to their form, domes are given special names such as network, lamella, Schwedler, ribbed, and geodesic domes. In this paper, an optimum topology design algorithm is performed using the enhanced colliding bodies optimization (ECBO) method. The network, lamella, ribbed and Schwedler domes are studied to determine the optimum number of rings, the optimum height of crown and tubular sections of these domes. The minimum volume of each dome is taken as the objective function. A simple procedure is defined to determine the dome structures configurations. This procedure includes calculating the joint coordinates and element constructions. The design constraints are implemented according to the provision of LRFD-AISC (Load and Resistance Factor Design-American Institute of Steel Constitution). The wind loading act on domes according to ASCE 7-05 (American Society of Civil Engineers). This paper will explore the efficiency of various type of domes and compare them at the first stage to investigate the performance of these domes under different kind of loading. At the second stage the wind load on optimum design of domes are investigated for Schwedler dome. Optimization process is performed via ECBO algorithm to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the ECBO in creating optimal design for domes.