On multi-scale structural topology optimization and material design

Abstract

Computational material design has gained considerable interest, along the last years, in the computational mechanics community. Although most of the current approaches focus on one-scale structural optimization, this work is settled in a multi-scale framework. In this sense, the goal consists of designing the micro-structure material and the macro-structure topology such that some cost function is minimized. In this case, the structural compliance is the considered cost function, so that the structural stiffness is maximized for a given weight.