Creating innovative and efficient structures and materials

Novel and efficient structural and material designs can be realized by topology optimization that is capable of maximizing the performance of structural systems under given constraints. The bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method has been developed into an effective tool for topology optimization of load-bearing structures and materials. The latest advances of BESO are aimed at expanding its practical applications to a wider range of structural systems on both macro and micro scales. This paper presents recent developments of BESO for optimal design problems of a variety of structural systems ranging from buildings of large scales to materials of micro scales. Selected applications are introduced to demonstrate the capability of BESO. Examples presented in this paper are based on research and industrial projects of the Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials (http://www.rmit.edu.au/research/cism at RMIT University. © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.