A FEniCS and Dolphin-Adjoint Code
Optimal Microstructures in just a bit over 100 lines of code. Made possible via Dolfin-Adjoint which automatically calculates the adjoint system for the microscopic elasticity problem.
Step 1: Install Anaconda
Step 2: Create a „fenicsproject“ virtual environment, install FEniCS, activate the virtual environment and install Matplotlib, IPOPT and Dolfin-Adjoint
conda create -n fenicsproject -c conda-forge fenics
conda activate fenicsproject
conda install -c conda-forge matplotlib
conda install -c conda-forge cyipopt
pip install git+https://github.com/dolfin-adjoint/pyadjoint.git@master
Step 3: Clone the repositoy, navigate to the python file and start the FEniCS program via
git clone https://github.com/ebeling-rump/microTopOpt.git
cd microTopOpt
python microTopOpt.py
The first video shows the result of the program as is. The goal is to create a microstructure, which leads to a negative Poisson ratio of the homogenized macrostructure. In other words: If the structure is pulled apart horizontally, it will stretch vertically.
The second video follows the same incentive, but shows how different parameters can influence the final design. It is run with a larger Volume Constraint of 60% instead of 40%, the number of iteration steps is increased from 50 to 500 and the initial state has less holes. Note that this a shifted version of the result in Design and testing of 3D-printed micro-architectured polymer materials exhibiting a negative Poisson’s ratio
