Hi everyone,

A lot of our customers asked us if inertia relief is supported in Abaqus/ATOM?

The answer is yes!  Inertia relief is supported for controller based topology optimization and shape optimization.

Here are two examples:

Use of inertia relief in controller based topology optimization:

Consider the example of a cantilever beam with inertia relief applied in Y direction (U2 DOF).

Optimization definition:

Minimize (compliance)

Subject to: Vfinal=0.7*Vinitial

Undeformed shape after 2 design cycles:

Note that we recommend running the optimization for at least 15 design cycles while using controller based topology optimization. In this example we are looking at the results for design cycle 2.

Use of inertia relief in shape optimization:

Consider the example of a cantilever beam with inertia relief applied in Y direction (U2 DOF). Shape optimization is defined on the fillet and target of the optimization is to minimize the Von Mises stress on the fillet.

Undeformed shape after 2 design cycles:

For more details on inertia relief please refer Section 11.1.1 Inertia relief of Abaqus Analysis Users Manual (release 6.11-1).