Search

Purpose -- Conventional level-set method tends to fall into local optima because optimization is conducted based on gradient method. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel topology optimization in which simulated annealing (SA) is introduced to overcome the difficulties in level-set method. Design/methodology/approach -- Level-set based topology optimization for two-dimensional optimization problem. Findings -- It is shown in the numerical examples, where conventional and present methods are applied to shape optimization of ferrite inductor and Interior Permanent Magnetic (IPM)-motor, the present method can find solutions with better performance than those obtained by the conventional method. Originality/value -- SA is introduced to improve the search performances of level-set method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]