Optimization of the Fundamental Frequency of Mechanical Structures by Using the Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Method

A hierarchical structure is a structure that can be described by different characteristic lengths, and is such that its layout in the smaller scale (microscale) affects its behavior in the bigger scale (macroscale). Each hierarchical level is treated as a continuous medium composed of one or more materials. The simultaneous design of multiphase composite structures aims at finding the optimal distribution of materials such that one or more structural parameters are maximized (or minimized). In this work, the Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization method, BESO hereinafter, is applied to the maximization of the fundamental frequency of a structure subjected to a constraint on the total volume of materials used. Numerical experiments are made in order to validate the implementation and confirm the efficacy of the method in optimizing the topology of the structure.