Projection-Based Overhang Constraints: Implementing an Efficient Adjoint Formulation for Sensitivity Analysis

Abstract

This paper extends a recently developed adjoint framework for an efficient overhang filtering to projection-based methods for overhang constraints. The developed approach offers a fast and efficient computational methodology and enables a minimum allowable self-supporting angle and a minimum allowable feature size within the formulation of the optimization problem, and designs components that can be manufactured without using support structures. The adjoint-based sensitivity formulation are derived to eliminate the computational intensities associated with the direct differentiation in the formulation of overhang constraints, which become prohibitive in large scale 2D and 3D problems. The developed formulation is tested on structural problems and numerical examples are provided to present efficiency of the proposed methodology.