Structural Topology Design Optimization for Controlled Crash Behavior

This paper presents a methodology to perform structural topology design optimization for crashworthiness considering a prescribed and safe structural behavior through the dynamic equilibrium equation. This implementation, called here controlled crash behavior, or CCB, is very useful for design engineers in the automotive industry since it allows them to ‘prescribe’ a structural behavior of the vehicle at given locations of interest. The methodology is based on previous work from the author where the optimum topology is determined using a heuristic (optimality) criterion to attain a design with prescribed levels of plastic strains and stresses. The paper includes a simple beam example to demonstrate the CCB approach. Results are consistent with the formulation of the optimization problem.