Material distribution optimization of 2D heterogeneous cylinder under thermo-mechanical loading

In this paper optimization of volume fraction distribution in a thick hollow cylinder with finite length made of two-dimensional functionally graded material (2D-FGM) and subjected to steady state thermal and mechanical loadings is considered. The finite element method with graded material properties within each element (graded finite elements) is used to model the structure. Volume fractions of constituent materials on a finite number of design points are taken as design variables and the volume fractions at any arbitrary point in the cylinder are obtained via cubic spline interpolation functions. The objective function selected as having the normalized effective stress equal to one at all points that leads to a uniform stress distribution in the structure. Genetic Algorithm jointed with interior penalty-function method for implementing constraints is effectively employed to find the global solution of the optimization problem. Obtained results indicates that by using the uniform distribution of normalized effective stress as objective function, considerably more efficient usage of materials can be achieved compared with the power law volume fraction distribution. Also considering uniform distribution of safety factor as design criteria instead of minimizing peak effective stress affects remarkably the optimum volume fractions.