A methodology for topology optimization based on level set method and its application to piezoelectric energy harvester design

Abstract

Compared to a density based procedure, the level set method can acquire a clear boundary without any intermediate density elements, and has become a topical issue in topology optimization studies. In this method, the material properties of the discretized elements are usually defined as the design variables, giving rise to the so called discrete or sawtooth topologies. In this paper, a topology optimization methodology based on level-set method (LSM) and radial basis function (RBF) is proposed. To enhance the performance of the LSM, an improved material interpolation model is proposed. The RBF based post-processor is proposed to smooth the preliminary optimized topology. The proposed method is applied to the topology design of a piezoelectric energy harvester. The effect of different penalization factors is compared and analyzed. The numerical results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.