Lecture Title: Recent Development of Discrete Variable Topology Optimization
Prof. Gengdong CHENG
Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China
Professor Gengdong CHENG graduated from Peking University in 1964 and received his Ph.D. from Department of Solid Mechanics, the Technical University of Denmark in 1980. He was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1995 and served as President of Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China, during the period 1995-2006.
Prof. Cheng has been Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Association of Mechanics, and President of ISSMO (International Society of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization) (2015-2019). He has received Honorary Doctoral degrees from Aalborg University, Denmark and University of Liege, Belgium, respectively. In 2011, he was elected foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is current Chief-Editor of Journal Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and a member of the editorial boards of six domestic journals, and of the three international journals Engineering Optimization, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and Computers & Structures.
Prof. Cheng specializes in computational mechanics and structural optimization for 50 years. His study of introducing thin, microstructural stiffeners in problems of optimal thickness distribution of elastic plates co-authored with Prof. Niels Olhoff in 1978-1980, has been esteemed as pioneering work leading to modern structural topology optimization, which is in full flourish over the relevant field now. Over the years, he has made important contributions to the development of structural optimization. He studied semi-analytical sensitivity analysis and pointed out the source of abnormal error of the method. His discovery of the essence of singular optimal solutions in truss topology optimization subject to stress constraint and the development of a relaxation algorithm for the singular optimal solution together with Prof. Xu Guo have been cited frequently. His later work includes the volume preserving nonlinear density filters, the concurrent optimization of periodic beam, plate, and continuum structures with material microstructures, and the Sequential Approximate Integer Programming for topology optimization. He and his research group have promoted the research and application of structural topology optimization in both domestic and international stage, in particular, have made significant contribution to support aerospace and other industry to develop light weight structure designs in China.
Prof. Cheng has published 6 books and more than 300 treatises. In the years 1992, 2006 and 2019, he won three times the second prize for National Achievements of Natural Sciences in China.