Topology design based on transferred and potential transferred forces

Abstract.

The concepts of transferred force and potential transferred force through certain parts of the structure to its supports are explained. Topology design methods for linearly elastic structures with the combined use of these forces are investigated. Since the methods do not require any formal optimization techniques, they are quite straightforward to use. The methods are applied to a cantilever truss structure and 2-D plates. The problem of dependency of the solution on the finite element mesh is studied for the cantilever plate problem. It is concluded that the methods with the combined use of transferred and potential transferred forces are good for material redistribution problems and they give better solutions than the methods that use only transferred forces.