Shape and topology optimization for electrothermomechanical microactuators using level set methods

In this short note, a shape and topology optimization method is presented for multiphysics actuators including geometrically nonlinear modeling based on an implicit free boundary parameterization method. A level set model is established to describe structural design boundary by embedding it into the zero level set of a higher-dimensional level set function. The compactly supported radial basis functions (CSRBF) are introduced to parameterize the implicit level set surface with a high level of accuracy and smoothness. The original more difficult shape and topology optimization driven by the Hamilton–Jacobi partial differential equation (PDE) is transferred into a relatively easier parametric (size) optimization, to which many well-founded optimization algorithms can be applied. Thus the structural optimization is transformed to a numerical process that describes the design as a sequence of motions of the design boundaries by updating the expansion coefficients of the size optimization. Two widely studied examples are chosen to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.