CAD-compatible structural shape optimization with a movable B'ezier tetrahedral mesh

This paper presents the development of a complete CAD-compatible framework for structural shape optimization in 3D. The boundaries of the domain are described using NURBS while the interior is discretized with B'ezier tetrahedra. The tetrahedral mesh is obtained from the mesh generator software Gmsh. A methodology to reconstruct the NURBS surfaces from the triangular faces of the boundary mesh is presented. The description of the boundary is used for the computation of the analytical sensitivities with respect to the control points employed in surface design. Further, the mesh is updated at each iteration of the structural optimization process by a pseudo-elastic moving mesh method. In this procedure, the existing mesh is deformed to match the updated surface and therefore reduces the need for remeshing. Numerical examples are presented to test the performance of the proposed method. The use of the movable mesh technique results in a considerable decrease in the computational effort for the numerical examples.