Acoustic topology optimisation using CMA-ES

Structural topology optimisation techniques are increasingly being applied to acoustic materials. Most acoustic topology optimisation applications use the solid-isotropic-material-with-penalization (SIMP) approach [1]-[4] which is a derivative-based method. In this work, we study the use of covariance-matrix-adaptation-evolution-strategy (CMA-ES) [5], [6], considered the state of the art approach for derivative-free continuous optimisation, as a candidate for acoustic topology optimisation. The performance of both CMA-ES and SIMP are compared on a small test problem. In this initial study, manufacturability restrictions and volume constraints were not considered for either of the algorithms. Comparisons show that SIMP quickly results in a good quality solution, while CMA-ES converges slowly but to a better quality solution.