Hello all,
I am currently working on a thermo-electric topology optimization in OptiStruct 2025.1 / HyperMesh 2025.1 and I am facing two main challenges.
1) Multiple load cases with different contactor states
My optimization setup needs to include 3 load cases with different switching states of contactors (open/closed depending on the load case).
My original idea was to activate/deactivate electrical contacts between steps/subcases, but this does not seem to be possible in the way I need it.
As an alternative, I am now investigating a thin solid contact layer at the contactor location, which I would like to “switch” by using temperature-dependent electrical resistance / resistivity.
However, I could not find a practical way to define this in the GUI. In particular, it seems that temperature-dependent electrical material data (e.g. MAT1EC/MATT1EC) is either not available or not accessible in my current setup.
My questions are:
- What is the recommended way to model different electrical switching states of contactors across multiple load cases in a thermo-electric topology optimization?
- Is the thin solid-layer approach a valid workaround in OptiStruct?
- Can temperature-dependent electrical resistivity be used for this purpose, and if yes, what is the correct setup?
- Is there another better or more robust approach that you would recommend?
2) Coupling thermo-electric results to a structural step for stress constraints
I would also like to know whether it is possible to extend the workflow by adding a mechanical/structural step after the electrical and thermal steps, and then include stress constraints in the optimization.
I already tried to append a static structural step, but I was not able to reference/select the thermal step as the temperature field for the structural analysis.
My questions are:
- Is it possible to create a workflow like
Electrical → Thermal → Structural
within a thermo-electric topology optimization? - If yes, how should the structural step be linked to the thermal results?
- Can stress constraints be included in such a coupled optimization setup?
Any guidance, recommended workflow, or example model would be greatly appreciated.
