Structural topology optimization of three-dimensional multi-material composite structures with finite deformation

In this work, an explicit three-dimensional (3D) topology optimization approach is presented for multi-material composite structures accounting the finite deformation effect. The proposed method employs different sets of 3D Moving Morphable Voids (MMVs) to identify each phase material, resulting in explicit geometric descriptions of the optimized composite structures and a reduction in the number of design variables. The decoupling between the topology description and finite element analysis of composite structures enables the removal of redundant degrees of freedom, thereby mitigating the convergence issue of finite deformation analysis caused by low-density elements and leading to significant computational savings. Numerical experiments of composite structures with two- and three-phase materials are optimized to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that, under finite deformation, the distribution of each phase material in optimized 3D composite structures is significantly affected by the amplitude of external loads, and the optimized layout could be quite different from its counterpart under small deformation assumption.