PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON 3D CONTACT SHAPE OPTIMIZATION WITH THE BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD

Resumo

This work presents preliminary results applying the Boundary Element Method (BEM) as a structural
sensitivity kernel under a contact shape optimization procedure for 3D problems involving anisotropic materials
under contact, using the Complex-Step Method (CSM) to obtain sensitivities of objective function and restrictions
to the variation of design parameters. In this preliminary work, we present the results for the isotropic case. An
important aspect regarding the fatigue life of ductile materials subject to contact conditions is the occurrence of
the maximum shear stress below the surface. The examples analyzed with the present methodology explore the

optimization of shape aiming towards a smooth stress distribution along the blade root surface. The optimiza-
tion procedure follows the SLP paradigm. This BEM based methodology can avoid the need for extreme mesh

refinements reducing computational cost while obtaining useable results.