Research on the Lightweight Design of an Aircraft Support Based on Lattice-Filled Structures

Abstract

This work studied the lightweight design of an aircraft support based on lattice-filled structures. Different from the traditional design process of lattice-filled structures, this work combined several approaches, including topology optimization, homogenization analysis, and Non-Uniform Rational B-splines (NURBS) surface modeling, to reduce the structural weight more effectively. The theories and implementations involved in the design process are introduced in this work. The new lattice-filled design of the aircraft support component reduced the weight by 40% compared with the original value, and its additive manufacturability was verified. Finally, the structural responses of the lattice-filled design from both a detailed model and homogenization model were determined and compared, considering both the static responses and dynamic characteristics. The results revealed that the homogenization method efficiently and accurately obtained the structural displacements and natural frequencies of the complex lattice-filled design. This indicates that the homogenization method can effectively reduce the calculation burden of the design process of lattice-filled structures, which opens a new channel for the structural optimizations of lattice-filled structures.