Topology face–based change propagation analysis in aircraft-assembly tooling design

Abstract

Assembly tooling design is implemented according to the constraints of geometric information and technical requirements of aircraft. Changes in aircraft parts will cause changes in assembly tooling parts. Using topology faces as basic processing units and focusing on the constraint relationships between topology faces, this article presents a method for change propagation analysis from aircraft to assembly tooling, which assists designers to detect changes efficiently and assess the change influence qualitatively in a uniform way. First, change vector representing the change state of the original parts’ topology faces and relation matrix recording the relationships between the topology faces are introduced. Then, based on the change vectors and relation matrices, an algorithm is developed to obtain the overall geometrical change propagations from aircraft parts to assembly tooling parts. Meanwhile, a concept of change influence index is presented to evaluate the change qualitatively. Finally, a computer-aided system is developed and the proposed change propagation analysis method is demonstrated by applying it to an aircraft-assembly tooling.