Topology Optimization and Design for Additive Manufactured Supporting Structure of Vehicle Rudder

Abstract

The object investigated in this work is a design method for the supporting structure of vehicle rudders, which are the crucial components in flight control system. As a practical application of topology optimization for additive manufacture, the design process was presented in this article. To obtain the optimal material distribution, topology optimization based on SIMP method was applied, with compliance minimization as the optimization objective. A numerical optimization model was built and calculated in Inspire, and the result in an equivalent load scheme of 30 percent point load and 70 percent uniform pressure was adopted to be the initial geometry for the subsequent design. Concentrating on realizing the optimized geometry, this design took a series of technical constrains for additive manufacture and mass requirements into consideration. Notably, the FEM simulation for the supporting structure is necessary, which consist of stress analysis and mode analysis. And the technical feasibility was verified in its practical manufacturing process. Finally, by the experiment about dynamic characteristic, it is verified that the lightweight rudder designed in this work can satisfy all the requirements for flight control.