Worm-like highly deformable Multi-Section B-Spline Offset Feature for topology optimization

This paper presents a highly deformable Multi-Section B-Spline Offset Feature (MS-BSOF) for topology optimization. The MS-BSOF is bio-inspired from the geometric morphology of worms which is modeled with a deformable directrix and deformable cross-sections. The directrix is defined by B-spline curve. The cross-section profile in 3D case is determined by a set of control cross-section profiles, each of which is defined as a closed B-spline (CBS) to ensure high deformability. The implicit representations of the proposed 2D and 3D MS-BSOFs are formulated using the level-set function (LSF). To perform topology optimization, a topology variation modeler (TVM) is constructed with the proposed MS-BSOF within a freeform design domain modeler (FDDM). Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and merits of the MS-BSOF.