New Trends in Structural Topology Optimization: From Building Design to Craniofacial Reconstructive Surgery

Topology optimization refers to the optimum distribution of material in order to achieve prescribed design objectives while simultaneously satisfying constraints. This presentation investigates new trends in topology optimization and addresses its impact in diverse fields ranging from bio-inspired design of innovative building systems, to design of patient-specific large craniofacial segmental bone replacements, to the use of tessellated grids (e.g. Escher’s tessellations) as a means to coalesce art and engineering. From a structural viewpoint, topology optimization can be used to minimize the material consumption while at the same time providing a tool to generate design alternatives integrating architectural and structural engineering concepts. However, the manufacturing of optimal structures often lags behind our analysis and design capabilities. Thus additive manufacturing (a rapidly evolving field) presents itself as the(much sought) stage required for a complete structural optimization design process. A streamlined framework is presented by which topology optimization methods can directly generate output suitable for additive manufacturing. The proposed framework has application in a number of fields, with specific examples given from the fields of health, architecture and engineering.

Professor Paulino is the Raymond Allen Jones Chair at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in January 2015, he was the Donald and Elizabeth Willett Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His seminal contributions in the area of computational mechanics include the development of methodologies to characterize the deformation and fracture behavior of existing and emerging materials and structural systems; and topology optimization for large-scale multiscale/multiphysics problems. He received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE (2004) and he is a fellow of the USACM (2011), IACM (2012), and AAM (2015). Recently, he received the 2014 Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award from ASME. He is associate editor of the ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics and Mechanics Research Communications, and a regional editor of the International Journal of Fracture. His contributions to the permanent scientific literature include more than 200 scholarly publications in peer-refereed international journals, and a new book on The Symmetric Galerkin Boundary Element Method, which was published by Springer-Verlag (2008). More information about his research and professional activities can be found at the following url: http://www.ghpaulino.com