Design space optimization using design space adjustment and refinement

To deal with large-scale problems that often occur in industry, the authors propose design space optimization with design space adjustment and refinement. In topology optimization, a design space is specified by the number of design variables, and their layout or configuration. The proposed procedure has two efficient algorithms for adjusting and refining design space. First, the design space can be adjusted in terms of design space expansion and reduction. This capability is evolutionary because the design domain expands or reduces wherever necessary. Second, the design space can be refined uniformly or selectively wherever and whenever necessary, ensuring a target resolution with fewer elements, especially for selective refinement. Accordingly, the proposed procedure can handle large-scale problems by solving a sequence of smaller problems. Two examples show the efficiency of the proposed approach.