SIMP method
The Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization ( SIMP ) method, sometimes also called Solid Isotropic Microstructure with Penalization , is a process of continuous topology optimization of components: For a component, under certain loads, the best possible structure should be found. For this purpose, the maximum installation space available for the component is divided into small elements. Other methods are now trying to determine which elements they can omit and which elements have to be added again in order to be able to bear the loads with as little material as possible. The SIMP method works differently: Instead of removing elements entirely (state “0”) or having them completely there (state “1”) , each element may have an intermediate value. In order to avoid that the entire installation space only assumes undifferentiated intermediate values and in order to favor concrete structures, intermediate values are however “punished” the further they are from 0 or 1 (and the closer they are to 0.5). This favors areas with values close to 1 (fixed area) and areas with values close to 0 (empty area).