An Advection-Diffusion based Filter for Machinable Designs in Topology Optimization

Abstract: This paper introduces a simple formulation for topology optimization problems ensuring manufacturability by machining. The method distinguishes itself from existing methods by using the advection-diffusion equation with Robin boundary conditions to perform a filtering of the design variables. The proposed approach is less computationally expensive than the traditional methods used. Furthermore, the approach is easy to implement on unstructured meshes and in a distributed memory setting. Finally, the proposed approach can be performed with few to no continuation steps in any system parameters. Applications are demonstrated with topology optimization on unstructured meshes with up to 64 million elements and up to 29 milling tool directions.