Abstract

The objective of this work is to describe the design and implementation of a framework for building multi-disciplinary finite element programs. The main goals are generality, reusability, extendibility, good performance and memory efficiency. Another objective is preparing the code structure for team development to ensure the easy collaboration of experts in different fields in the development of multi-disciplinary applications.

Kratos, the framework described in this work, contains several tools for the easy implementation of finite element applications and also provides a common platform for the natural interaction of different applications. To achieve this, an innovative variable base interface is designed and implemented. This interface is used at different levels of abstraction and showed to be very clear and extendible. A very efficient and flexible data structure and an extensible IO are created to overcome difficulties in dealing with multi-disciplinary problems. Several other concepts in existing works are also collected and adapted to coupled problems. The use of an interpreter, of different data layouts and variable number of dofs per node are examples of such approach.

In order to minimize the possible conflicts arising in the development, a kernel and application approach is used. The code is structured in layers to reflect the working space of developers with different fields of expertise. Details are given on the approach chosen to increase performance and efficiency. Examples of application of Kratos to different multidisciplinary problems are presented in order to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the new object oriented environment.

Abstract

Manufacturing-oriented Topology Optimization (TO) is an active field of research both in academic and in industrial world. On one hand, the potential offered by topology optimization as a powerful design method is undeniable in improving the structural performance in different areas of engineering. On the other hand, Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology provides numerous industrial mechanisms of manufacturing and producing complex structure where classical methods fail to deliver an outcome. Merging both branches of TO and AM together introduces encouraging results in terms of designing optimized structures showing an acceptable mechanical response. In our contribution, we present a topology optimization model developed for additive manufacturing design. Using an innovative meshing algorithm, we particularly showed how the topology optimization could be implemented in order to consider the constraints of additive manufacturing specifically the printability of the parts with overhang angle. The design of the self-supporting structures is a challenging part of the additive manufacturing process, without which the process becomes tedious in terms of time, efficiency and financial resources. Therefore, a continuous effort for a better understanding of such issue is justified. In this paper, we suggest an improvement on the work carried out by Langelaar in this context. The model used in this study is a more complicated geometry compared to