Topology optimisation of railcar composite structure

Abstract

Composite materials are nowadays more often used in rail vehicles. Existing structures of rail vehicles were made by welding of sheet metal parts. This led to many complications and increased weight of the vehicle. This paper presents a new design concept of modern rail vehicle structures made of standardised composite profiles that fulfils the stress and manufacturing requirements. Structures suggested by topology optimisation often turn out to be difficult to implement in manufacturing processes. For preprocessing of the design space of topology optimisation, a new procedure of topology constraints for composite structure will be used. The preprocessing procedure consists of preparation of equivalent design space (EDS). The new design methodology will be illustrated by an example of composite wagon structure optimisation. As is shown, the methodology turned out to be an effective tool for obtaining optimal thin-walled structure that fulfils assumed manufacturing constraints.