Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, 560 012, India
"The more you think, the less material you need"
ME260
Structural Optimization: Size, Shape, and Topology
Aug. 2023 to Nov. 2023
Instructor: G. K. Ananthasuresh, Room 106, ME Building, suresh at iisc.ac.in
Teaching assistant: To be decided, Room 106, ME Building, someone at iisc.ac.in
Lectures: Tu, Th: 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM; Venue: ME MMCR

• The course project should be done individually. Its purpose is to reinforce the learnings from the course. It requires application of the thoery and methods taught in the course to a structural optimization problem. It is preferred that the students align their research interests with the project. The project will be done in three stages: (i) Definition and formulation of the problem, (ii) A work-in-progress report on optimality criteria, algorithm, etc., and (iii) final presentation.
• The student is expected to browse through the literature, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization journal in particular, to identify a paper of interest. The paper should have been published in 2015 or after. A report is to be submitted based on student's understanding of the paper. It should include (i) a summary of the paper (written in own words and not copied from the abstract or conclusions, (ii) novelty of the paper, (iii) implementation of the main components of the paper, (iv) critique of the paper (limitations, unclear parts, etc.), and (v) ways to go beyond the paper.

1. Topology optimization of stiff trusses or compliant mechanisms (two projects) using statically determinate trusses using the dual method in a single variable.
   Supreet for stiff trusses problem and Deepak for compliant mechanism problem
2. Posing the Steiner's problem as a topology optimization problem. It should be able to deal with n cities without knowing that n-2 interior points are needed to get the minimum length of connecting roads among the four cities.
3. Topology optimization of trusses in 3D. FEA code in Matlab will be privided. Angar
4. Topology optimization of trusses in 2D or 3D (two projects!). FEA code in Matlab will be provided.
   2D truss optimization with stress or buckling constraints for Asif
5. Mode shape optimization of bars, beams, and plates. Varun Sai
6. Comparative analysis of structures for stiffness, strength, and stability
   Samanvay
7. Completely solving and preparing slides for 13 unsolved problems of bar optimization (see Lecture 15b)
   Rahul
8. Completely solving and preparing slides for 8 x 2 = 16 (two projects) problems of beam optimization (see Lecture 15d)
   Aruna and Rohit
9. 2D compliant mechanism optimization
   Kalpesh
10. Strongest column optimization for any boundary conditions (analytical and numerical; two approaches)
    Adarsh and Ravinder
11. Topology optimization of electrothermal actuators
    Rakesh
12. Topology optimization of pressure load problems
    Cyril
13. Size optimization of heat-exchanger fin
    Vishal
14. 2D continuum topology optimization of structures
    Manjesh
15. Simulataneous material selection and geometry optimization of compliant mechanisms using the statically determinate truss approach
    Udit
16. Inverse homogenization problem for material discretized as 2D truss elements
    Madan
17. Beam topology optimization for stiffness (or flexibility) with both b (breadth) and d (depth) of beam segments variable
    Krishna

Please submit a one-page proposal on your ideas for the course project. You are expected to describe the problem you want to solve. You should work alone on the project. Some project ideas are noted above.

Your one-page description (due beofre TBD) should include a clear mathematical statement of the problem with objective function, constraints, design variables, state variables, and data. All symbols need to be defined. If you do not have the mathematical expressions at this time, simply write it verbally. Provide a one-paragraph description of background to the problem you have taken up. Write one line about the best design(s) you would anticipate based on your intuition.