03.04.2026 – Topological Optimization
1️⃣ The first picture is a an example of Topology Optimization applied to an hypotethical Upright of an electric sport car, that I was showing to my students. It considers only four load cases: Bump, Acceleration, Braking and Outer Cornering. Those are anyway enough to show how such a component has to withstand to forces that are stressing it in different ways.
The first line of the first picture shows the Design Space, mainly defined by the inside shape of the wheel rim, the second line illustrates the solution found by the Topology Optimizer and the third presents the surfaces extracted by a post-processing step: these surfaces still need to undergo a proper design to smooth out “strange” things and to make it produceable, therefore a final check has to be perfomed before releasing the part.
2️⃣ The second picture is taken from the book “Computational Structural Engineering” and it shows how the Topology Optimization, applied in this case just to optimize the torsional stiffness of a single seater monocque, suggests to use a “truss-like” structure, like the good old time race car frames used to be; following this example and thinking that in the future big enough 3D printers will be available, might inspire designers to dare and go back to those philosophies, possibily finding that a metal (aluminium) costruction could be more efficient (and sustainable) than a composite one.
