Comparison of Manual Setting Weight Reduction and Topology Optimization of the Wing Tips of Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Aircraft

Abstract

Urban air mobility aircraft are considered an effective solution to traffic jams. These particular aircraft come with different designs and are very different from traditional aircraft. An effective weight reduction method is required to enable ongoing design validation and verification. This paper presents the design of an aircraft with a high space utilization rate of the take-off and landing stage, which allows vertical take-off and landing and has long battery life. For the components fixed at the wing tips and used for installing ducted fans and based on the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process, this paper puts forward two methods to carry out the lightweight design according to the stress conditions of the aircraft, namely, the manual setting the internal structure and the topology optimization. The results show that when the force on the component is small, manual setting is very effective for the purpose of weight reduction, which can also improve the manufacturability of the aircraft.