TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF STEADY HEAT CONDUCTIVE STRUCTURES WITH DESIGN-DEPENDENT HEAT LOADS

With the minimum dissipation of heat transport potential capacity as the objective, a topology optimization model and related method for heat conduction continuum structures were developed to solve steady heat conduction problems, and related numerical experiments were carried out. In the method, the sensitivity formulae of both design-dependent and design-independent loads are given, Rational Approximation of Material Properties (RAMP) is adopted to ensure clear topologies, the design objective and material distribution are controlled using the optimization criteria method, and the checkerboard influence is eliminated by the sensitivity filter method. The numerical experiments show the effects of design-dependent load, design-independent load, and complex load on structural topologies visually and the proposed method is suitable for steady heat conduction problems.