End-to-end quantum algorithm for topology optimization in structural mechanics

Abstract Topology optimization is a key methodology in engineering design for finding efficient and robust structures. Due to the enormous size of the design space, evaluating all possible configurations is typically infeasible. In this work, we present an end-to-end, fault-tolerant quantum algorithm for topology optimization that operates on an exponentially large Hilbert space representing the design space. We demonstrate the algorithm on the two-dimensional Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm beam problem. By restricting design variables to binary values, we reformulate the compliance minimization task as a combinatorial satisfiability problem, solved using Grover’s algorithm. Within Grover’s oracle, the compliance is computed through the finite-element method using established quantum algorithms, including block-encoding of the stiffness matrix, quantum singular value transformation for matrix inversion, Hadamard test, and quantum amplitude estimation. The complete algorithm is implemented and validated using classical quantum-circuit simulations. A detailed complexity analysis shows that the method evaluates the compliance of exponentially many structures in quantum superposition in polynomial time. In the global search, our approach maintains Grover’s quadratic speedup compared to classical unstructured search. Overall, the proposed quantum workflow demonstrates how quantum algorithms can advance the field of computational science and engineering.