An element-free Galerkin method for topology optimization of micro compliant mechanisms

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternative topology optimization approach for the design of the large displacement compliant mechanisms with geometrical nonlinearity by using the Element-free Galerkin (EFG) Method. In this study, because of its non-negative and range-bounded properties, Shepard function method, as a density filter, is used to generate a non-local nodal density field with enriched smoothness over the design domain. Besides, the Shepard function method is employed to build a point-wise density interpolation, the numerical implementation to calculate the artificial densities at all Gauss points. The moving least squares (MLS) method is then used to construct shape functions with compactly supported weight functions, to assemble the meshless approximations of system state equations. A typical large deformation compliant mechanism is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.