Simultaneous optimization of cast part and parting direction using level set method

Parting direction is one of the main parameters that significantly affect mouldability and manufacturing costs of a cast part. In conventional optimal design of cast part, a parting direction is pre‐selected by a designer and fixed throughout the optimization. However, when the optimization is performed with a different parting direction, the resulting design will also be different, and more importantly it will end up with different working performance. Therefore, we take the parting direction as a design variable in the optimization of a cast part so that the working performance can be optimized as much as possible. With these goals, a level set based method is proposed for the simultaneous optimization of cast part and parting direction. In each iteration, an optimal parting direction is first computed for the current structure, then the boundary of the current structure is updated by a design velocity that guarantees the design be moldable with the optimal parting direction. Therefore, although the parting direction may be changed during the optimization, the structure will always be moldable in the current parting direction. Numerical examples are provided in 3D.