IFIP TC 7 / 2013 - Minisymposia



  • Michael Stingl, Univerity of  Erlangen-Nuremberg

"Material and topology optimization: theory, methods and applications"

Computer based material and topology optimization is an active field of research since at least the last three decades. Applications reach nowadays from mechanical problems through to wave guiding, cloaking or inverse problems, in the framework of which locations of materials inhomogeneities are identified.

From a mathematical point of view there exist at least two main streams in the development of underlying methods. The first one follows a material-parametric approach, in which local material properties serve as optimization variables. The associated algorithms often follow the 'first-discretize-then-optimize' paradigm, enabling the use of very efficient higher order NLP algorithms. The second direction is based on the calculus of shape and topological derivatives derived by asmptotic analysis. Associated algorithms are defined directly at the infinite dimensional level of the problem and make use, for instance, of level-set representations of domains.

This minisymposium brings together researchers from both communities, the material parametric and the asymptotic analysis world. The idea is to present recent advances from both communities, to analyse similarities between the approaches, to exchange ideas and to discuss future directions.


>>>Program