A New Methodology Based on Multi-Label Graph Cut Theorem for Multi-Phase Topology Optimization.

Multi-phase topology optimization (TO) is able to determine the optimal distribution of two or more different materials in combination under some volume or weight constraints and is a very common problem in the engineering design area. To perform multi-phase TO, a new methodology based on the multi-label graph cut theorem is proposed in this paper. More specifically, the multi-label expansion move included in the theorem is able to solve the multi-phase TO problem without requiring a large amount of memory and time. According to the numerical results as reported, the proposed methodology can find the optimal topology of a multi-phase materials distribution with a significant improvement in the performance parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]