A maximum-rectifier-function approach to stress-constrained topology optimization

This paper introduces a novel method for stress-constrained topology optimization in which the stress constraint is a differentiable approximation of the maximum element stress violation in the structure. The element stress violation is given by a differentiable rectifier function. A key feature of the proposed method is its ability to render designs that satisfy the stress limit without renormalization of the constraint, as in some existing aggregation approaches. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed technique exhibits better convergence and is less sensitive to the aggregation parameter than aggregation methods that employ renormalization. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by several examples.