  Topology optimization is an important basis for the design of components.
Here, the optimal structure is found within a design space subject to boundary
conditions. Thereby, the specific material law has a strong impact on the final
design. An important kind of material behavior is hardening: then a, for
instance, linear-elastic structure is not optimal if plastic deformation will
be induced by the loads. Since hardening behavior has a remarkable impact on
the resultant stress field, it needs to be accounted for during topology
optimization. In this contribution, we present an extension of the
thermodynamic topology optimization that accounts for this non-linear material
behavior due to the evolution of plastic strains. For this purpose, we develop
a novel surrogate model that allows to compute the plastic strain tensor
corresponding to the current structure design for arbitrary hardening behavior.
We show the agreement of the model with the classic plasticity model for
monotonic loading. Furthermore, we demonstrate the interaction of the topology
optimization for hardening material behavior results in structural changes.
