Lattice Optimisation Setup

Matt Aldous
6 March 2015
Innovation Intelligence
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Basic Steps

Open HyperMesh, and ensure the User Profile is set to OptiStruct.

Open the model Lattice_Starter_01.hm

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Create Design Variable (DTPL)

HyperMesh 13.0.110 currently does not support all of the cards needed
for lattice optimisation, so there will be a few small edits needed.

Create a topology design variable on property Design, with no options

at all (no draw, no min/max dimensions etc).

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Create Design Variable

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Create Responses

Create a response for Total Mass.

Create a response for Weighted Compliance, using both loadsteps, with

an equal weighting of 1.0

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Create Objective

The objective is to minimise the weighted compliance (i.e. make the part
as stiff as possible, across both loadcases).

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Create Design Constraint

Constrain the mass to be <1.1046e-2 Tonnes.

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Create Design OPTimisation PaRaMeters

(DOPTPRM)

Click on OPTI CONTROL on the optimisation panel.

Tick DESMAX and set max number of iterations to 50.

Click CARD EDIT

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Create Design OPTimisation PaRaMeters

(DOPTPRM)

Add an unsupported entity line, by typing '1' in the UNSUPPORTED

CARDS box

In the unsupported text fields, add the keywords POROSITY and LOW.

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Add Control Cards

On the Analysis page, click Control Cards and add the following:-

Format H3D

Screen OUT

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Save HM and Export OptiStruct File

Save the HM file, then click the Export Model File icon

Enter a new name for the OptiStruct model, make sure to export ALL,
then export the solver deck.

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Modifying the Design Variable to Run Lattice

Optimisation

Open the OptiStruct .fem file in a text editor.

Find the DTPL card.

Add the following line immediately under the DTPL card (cut and paste this line to get
the spacing correct):-
+ LATTICE 1 0.050 0.80

Ensure that the LT number after LATTICE (1 in this case), corresponds to the structure
required within the hex/tet elements.

LT = 1 : LT = 2

The 0.05 and 0.8 represent the density bounds within which to generate lattice structure
(i.e. between 5% and 80% density).

Save the .fem file.

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Run the Lattice Topology Model

Open the OptiStruct GUI (which can be used to queue jobs).

Find the OptiStruct jobname.fem file just saved.

Add -len xxxx to specify a memory of xxxx MB for RAM.

Add -ncpu 4 to run on 4 cores. Note only transient and frequency

response parallelise well. More than 4 cores will incur a heavier licence
token draw.

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Run Models

Run the topology model.

Once finished, it will generate a new FEM file, jobname_lattice.fem

Run this model, and OptiStruct will then run sizing optimisation on the
lattice beam members.

Import the jobname_lattice.fem model into HyperMesh to see what OS

has done with the lattice.

Note the number of properties and design variables! Each beam in the
lattice is uniquely sized.

Once the sizing optimisation has finished, another automatically

generated FEM model, jobname_lattice_optimized.fem can be viewed.
This model contains the optimally sized lattice beams.

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jobname_lattice.fem

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jobname_lattice_optimized.fem

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