Improving topological design of FGM (functionally graded material) structure

The introduction of the full paper reviews a number of papers in the open literature and then proposes in its last paragraph the outline of what we believe to be a better method of topological design, which is explained in sections 1 and 2. Their core consists of: (1) starting from the fact that the close relationship between topological optimization and FGM considers the continuous change in material properties, we apply the solid isotropic material with penalization (SIMP) model to designing the functionally-graded MBB beam and FGM sandwich structure; (2) we use the convex linear optimization algorithm and the perimeter control method to design the topological configuration of the core of an FGM sandwich structure, thus achieving its weight reduction while maintaining its material properties and continuous change in functional grade. The design results, presented in Figs. 3 through 8 and Figs. 10 through 13, and their analysis show preliminarily that: (1) the material distribution tends to the weak part of an FGM structure; (2) the configurations thus designed are affected by property indices and FGM model; (3) our topological design can, we believe, both reduce the weight of the materials of an aerospace vehicle and enhance their performance.