Control of the finite element discretization error during the convergence of structural shape optimization algorithms

¹ Escola Universitària d'Enginyeria Tècnica Industrial de Barcelona (EUETIB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), C/ Comte d'Urgell, 187, 08036, Barcelona, Spain
² International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), C/ Gran Capitàn s/n, Campus Nord UPC, Módulo C1, 08034, Barcelona, Spain
³ Centro de Investigación de Tecnología de Vehículos (CITV), Universidad Politècnica de Valencia (UPV), Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

Corresponding author: bugeda@cimne.upc.edu

Received: 20 May 2009
Accepted: 12 August 2009

Abstract

This work analyzes the influence of the discretization error contained in the Finite Element (FE) analyses of each design configuration proposed by structural shape optimization algorithms over the behaviour of the algorithm. If the FE analyses are not accurate enough, the final solution will neither be optimal nor satisfy the constraints. The need for the use of adaptive FE analysis techniques in shape optimum design will be shown. The paper also proposes the use of the algorithm described in [1] in order to reduce the computational cost associated to the adaptive FE analysis of each geometrical configuration when evolutive optimization algorithms are used.