Topology Optimization of Suspension Control Arm Based on Assembly-free Finite Element Method

A suspension control arm was optimized by topology optimization under multi-working condition. In order to improve the speed of topology optimization for practical engineering problems, a topology optimization method based on topological sensitivity was combined with an assembly-free finite element method. The structure was discretized via uniform voxels. A deflated conjugate gradient (DCG) method was used to accelerate the finite element analysis. After the finite element analysis, the stress and strain field can be used to generate the topological sensitivity field, and the topological sensitivity field can be used to control the change of topology. Multi-working condition optimization and manufacturing constraints were used to make the method more suitable for practical problem. The comparison shows that the method can result in the close performance and similar shape of optimized structure to the commercial software. Meanwhile, the speed of the entire optimization is increased significantly.