In the automotive industry, engineers strive to reduce the overall mass of the vehicle, as this saves energy or the time needed for acceleration and braking, while also improving the vehicle's handling characteristics. Topology optimization is used to assist in solving this problem; a method of distributing material in an optimal way based on selected conditions. Topology optimization is performed on the CAD model of a motorcycle sprocket in the ANSYS environment, followed by a structural analysis of the topologically optimized sprocket. The results show that topology optimization is an effective method for reducing the product's mass.
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