STUDY ON THE TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION DESIGN OF UNDERWATER PRESSURE STRUCTURE

The paper studies the application of topology optimization in the design of an underwater pressure structure. Compared to the optimization design of a structure under fixed loads, this kind of problem needs to properly identify the pressure loading surface. During the optimization process, the intermediate topologies obtained by using an SIMP model can be actually treated as gray scale images. For this reason, the paper proposes a new material boundary identification scheme based on image segmentation technique, and the distance-regularized level-set evolution (DRLSE) method is used to detect the image edge. Numerical examples are presented to show the validity of the proposed scheme, and the topology optimization of the structure under hydrostatic water pressure is studied. For a given material volume constraint, the minimization of structural compliance and the optimal topology of the pressure hull under different boundary conditions are investigated. The optimized solutions highlight the engineering application value of the method in the optimized design for the form of multiple intersecting spherical pressure hulls and the exploration of the new shape of underwater pressure structures under complicate boundary conditions.