TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF A CONNECTING ROD FOR AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

Abstract

The topology optimization of a structure is a process that allows to establish if in a point of an assigned domain there should be some material. No assumption is made with regard to the number and the distribution of the contours and the final topology, that can be very different compared to that one initially hypothesized. In this paper a study related to the topology optimization of a connecting rod for an internal combustion engine is presented. The used technique for the optimization is the density (or distribution of material) method. The developed application, besides giving an innovative solution of the topology of the connecting rod with a lower mass in comparison with the initial one, has provided, thanks to the analysis of the results coming from different optimization analyses, useful information about the influence of the constraints on the obtained solution, and which solving method is more suitable for a given optimization problem with a certain number of design and state variables.