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Why isn't the mesh of a symmetric optimisation symmetrical?

The mesh of the Design Space (right side) is not an FE-Mesh but only a triangulation of the geometry to create an STL-file. So the mesh is created for the whole Design Space which is in turn used for the intersection at the end of each iteration. It doesn’t matter if it is a symmetrical optimisation or not because the mesh doesn’t represent any symmetric conditions.

So the intersection takes place between the smoothed optimisation result and the Design Space which are both triangulated geometries. Therefore, during the intersection parts of the STL-file of the Design Space and in other regions parts of the optimised design are being taken and this results in the intersected/nominal geometry.

 

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