Design 3D Thermo-Mechanical Structures with Multidisciplinary Topology Optimization

This paper presents an approach for solving the multidisciplinary topology optimization (MTO). To simplifying the description, a three-dimensional (3D) “heat transfer-thermal stress” coupling topology design problem is used as an instance to interpret the solving scheme. Unlike the common multiphysics topology optimization problem which usually modeled in a 3D domain or a 2D domain alternatively, the topology optimization problem mentioned in this paper has a 3D design domain (the design variable is referred as ρ 1 ) and two 2D design domains (the design variable is referred as ρ 2 and ρ 3 ) together in one mathematical model. Although all the model and solving method are based on a certain design instance, the solving scheme presented in this paper can be used as an efficient method for solving the boundary coupling MTO.