Topology optimization of acoustic mechanical interaction problems: a comparative review

The pursuit for design improvements by geometry modifications can easily become prohibitive using a trial and error process. This holds especially when dealing with multi-physics problems—such as acoustic-structure interaction—where it is difficult to realize design improvements intuitively due to the complexity of the coupled physics.

Compared to classical shape optimization, where a near optimal shape has to be supplied as an initial guess, topology optimization allows for innovative designs through a completely free material distribution, such that the topology can change during the optimization process. The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive critical review of the proposed strategies for topology optimization of coupled acoustic-structure interaction problems.

The work includes a comparison of topology optimization formulations with density, level set, and evolutionary-based methods and discusses the corresponding strengths and weaknesses through the considered application examples. The review concludes with recommendations for future research directions.