T-Splines Based Isogeometric Topology Optimization with Arbitrarily Shaped Design Domains

In this paper,a new isogeometric topology optimization(ITO)method is proposed by using T-splines based isogeometric analysis(IGA).The arbitrarily shaped design domains,directly obtained from CAD,are represented by a single T-spline surface which overcomes the topological limitations of Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline(NURBS).The coefficients correlated with control points are directly used as design variables.Therefore,the T-spline basis functions applied for geometry description and calculation of structural response are simultaneously introduced to represent the density distribution.Several numerical examples show that the proposed approach leads to a coherent workflow to handle design problems of complicated structures.The optimized results are free of checkerboard patterns without additional stabilization and filtering techniques due to the properties of T-splines,which also simplified the post-processing.In addition,through performing local refinement,we can easily achieve multiresolution optimization and infill optimization within the T-splines based framework.In general,the proposed method provides a possibility to design,analyze,and optimize engineering structures in a uniform model,which has the potential to improve design efficiency and reduce the cost of product development.