Wednesday 13 July 2011

Thesis Submitted

I finally submitted my thesis! :) I guess the defense will be in September or October. Afterwards I will publish my thesis online for free download. The title is "Topology Optimization of Smart Piezoelectric Transducers"

It basically consists of three parts:

* Topology optimization of piezoelectric actors, with single-frequency loudspeakers in mind.
* Topology optimization of piezoelectric cantilever type energy harvesters
* Self-penalization in topology optimization

For the harvester I applied piezoelectric dynamic stress constraints, which were actually easier to handle than in elasticity as I do right now :)

The self-penalization stuff goes much further than covered in the piezoelectric self-penalization paper.

The introductory stuff became quite extensive. When the thesis is published my plan is to compile all the linear elasticity stuff to an "Introduction to ersatz material topology optimization in linear elasticity", which might serve as what the title suggests. :) The idea is to publish it as technical report and provide free access to it.

I'm happy that writing the thesis is over! My plans for the future are not settled but it looks like that I stay for some more time in academia. ;)