Reliability-based topology optimization of piezoelectric smart structures with voltage uncertainty

Currently, most of the piezoelectric structures are designed under deterministic conditions, where the influence of uncertain factors on the output motion accuracy is ignored. In this work, a probabilistic reliability-based topology optimization method for piezoelectric structure is proposed to deal with the working voltage uncertainty. A nested double-loop optimization algorithm of minimizing the total volume while satisfying the reliability requirement of the displacement performance is established, where the PEMAP-P (piezoelectric material with penalization and polarization) model is used for parameterization of stiffness matrix, piezoelectric coupling matrix, and polarization direction. This strategy consists of an inner loop for reliability analysis and an outer loop for topology optimization. The reliability index approach based on most probable point (MPP) is used for realizing the evaluation of reliability constraint in reliability analysis. The sensitivities of reliability constraint with respect to the random variables and design variables are detailed using the adjoint variable method. Typical examples are performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed RBTO method. A comparison of the optimization results for different reliability indexes, standard deviations of the voltage, spring stiffnesses, and displacement limits are conducted, as well as the deterministic topology optimization results.