TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF 2D BUILDING FRAMES UNDER ARTIFICIAL EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTIONS USING POLYGONAL FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

In this article, topology optimization of two-dimensional (2D) building frames subjected to seismic loading is performed using the polygonal finite element method. Artificial ground motion accelerograms compatible with the design response spectrum of ASCE 7-16 are generated for the response history dynamic analysis needed in the optimization. The mean compliance of structure is minimized as a typical objective function under the material volume fraction constraint. Also, the adjoint method is employed for the sensitivity analysis evaluated in terms of spatial and time discretization. The ground structures are 2D continua taking the main structural components (columns and beams) as passive regions (solid) to render planar frames with additional components. Hence, building frames with different aspect ratios are considered to assess the usefulness of the additional structural components when applying the earthquake ground motions. Furthermore, final results are obtained for different ground motions to investigate the effects of ground motion variability on the optimized topologies.