The effect of non-locality (or size-dependency) on optimum topologies (or material layouts)

The current work aims to generalize topology optimization problem to scale-dependent two-dimensional plates regarding micropolar and Eringen’s theory of elasticity. The material distribution maximizing the structural stiffness are obtained in the framework of solid isotropic material penalization approach, accompanied by density filter and Heaviside projection in order to ensure mesh independent binary solutions. The computational cost is reduced by integrating an element removal and re-introduction strategy. Several benchmark problems are investigated under the assumption of linear elasticity to clearly demonstrate the influence of internal length and different non-locality mechanism on final optimum configurations.