RESEARCH ARTICLE


Topology Optimization of Frame Bracing System for Natural Frequency



Kemin Zhou*, Chahua Chen
College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Fujian 361021, China.


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Creative Commons License
© 2014 Zhou and Chen;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Fujian 361021, CHINA; Tel: +86-18965171319; E-mail: zhoukm@hqu.edu.cn and zhoukemin@tsinghua.org.cn


Abstract

A method to optimize the topology of frame bracing system is presented. Firstly frame is filled by truss-like continuum uniformly. The truss-like continuum simulates the distributive bracing system. The frame combined with truss-like continuum is analyzed by finite element method. The densities and orientations of bracing system at nodes are taken as design variables. The distribution field of bracing system is optimized by the method of moving asymptotes (MMA) and the method of steepest descent. The frame bracing system is established according to the optimal distribution field of bracing system. The natural frequency of optimal braced frame increases to more than two times while material increases only 5%. For no intermediate densities being suppressed, there is no numerical instability, such as checkerboard patterns and one-node connected hinges. The expression of natural frequency and its sensitivities of truss-like continuum are derived.

Keywords: Bracing system, frame, natural frequency, structural optimization, topology optimization, truss-like continuum.