Topology optimization of fiber-reinforced concrete structures using membrane-embedded model

Fiber-reinforced concrete is a typical unidirectional fiber-reinforced composite. For practicality and efficiency, fiber-reinforced concrete usually has the fiber and matrix modeled separately and then the fiber is embedded into the matrix. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel method to realize the topology and fiber orientation optimization for fiber-reinforced concrete structures. The optimization formulation considers two types of discrete variables, i.e., topology and fiber orientation, which are optimized by using the solid isotropic material with penalization method and bi-value coding parameterization method, respectively. To reduce the computational complexity, the topology and fiber orientation are independently updated at each iteration during the optimization process. Numerical examples verify the validity of the proposed method, which provides new ideas for the design of fiber-reinforced concrete structures.