Contact and Geometric Nonlinearities Topology Optimization Constrained With Stress

ABSTRACT Contact problems exist extensively in engineering. Many researchers focus on the stiffness design of contact structures, which may lead to the low‐strength. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel topology optimization method considering contact and geometric nonlinearities constrained with stress. The frictional surface‐to‐surface contact algorithm is established by using the Coulomb friction law and penalty method. A nonlinear topology optimization model is established with the volume fraction as objective function and the stress as constraint, which realizes the lightweight design of the contact structures. The sensitivity information is derived by using the adjoint method. Several numerical examples compare the effects of different p‐norm stress constraints, different friction coefficients, and different filter radii. It demonstrates that the proposed method can effectively control the maximum stress and reduce the weight of the contact structures under large deformation.