Optimized part disconnected from support

Connor_Hamilton

Hi,

When I optimized my part for maximum stiffness at 30%, it disconnected at one of the supports. When I try out the sizing scale after optimizing, it doesn't help. I have been trying many different manipulations from what I found on the web but nothing works. I have the design space (first picture) and the optimization (second picture) for reference.

I am still a bit new to Inspire. I could use any help.

Thanks

Ricardo Dominguez_22538

Hello Connor,

How are you doing? Your optimization looks amazing! Let me help with some recommendations to achieve what you're trying to do.

Sometimes Inspire considers that not all support conditions are needed to achieve your optimization constraints, this means, the stiffness goal can be achieved without the need of that particular support in the model. However I understand that you might want to consider that portion of the model.

In your model, this will be easier, what you need to do is to have active the Property Editor (F3) and then select all of your cylindrical supports (Identified by a cylinder icon):

In the property Editor, enable the optimization, and activate auto-calculation of forces, then define a material for the supports. This will help the distribution of forces across the supports of your model.

You can define the maximum allowable forces or let Inspire determine them.

Run your topology optimization again, it should consider the support this time!

Here's a quick example:

Without Fastener Optimization.

With Fastener optimization:

Please keep in mind that this type of adjustment are only available for cylindrical supports or grounded fasteners.

I hope this helps and happy simulating!

Best,

R.

Connor_Hamilton

Hi Ricardo,

Sorry for late reply but this is what I ended up with after your advice.

I experimented with a couple different materials and different force distributions on the top middle support but ended up with roughly the same thing. When I try to add mass with the side bar it still doesn't connect. 

What can I do from here?

Ricardo Dominguez_22538

Hi Connor.

I hope you're doing well.

I just wanted to confirm whether you've enabled optimization on all the supports. If so, I would recommend decreasing the allowable forces for each support to encourage a more even redistribution of loads.

Additionally, I suggest trying different optimization objectives, such as minimizing mass with a safety factor of 1.5. If the optimization is not considering other supports, it could be due to the load case or the optimization target not pushing the solver towards redistributing forces across all supports.

Please let me know if this helps or if you'd like further assistance.

Best,

R.

Adriano_Koga

as proposed by Ricardo, this is a nice tutorial to enable fastener constraints.

https://help.altair.com/inspire/en_us/topics/inspire/tutorials/tut_conn_grounded_c.htm

Connor_Hamilton

I did enable optimization and have experimented with the force distribution but it is still not connecting to the supports. I attempted the min mass with a factor of 1.5 but it gives me too much mass to what I require. Moving the scale then disconnects from the supports again.

I had previously followed that tutorial before posting this question but unfortunately it did not work.

I am continuing to change the forces on each support, but is there a configuration you recommend? I have tried slightly reduced but even forces for the top supports and heavily reduced forces for the bottom two, as well as slightly reduced.