Abstract
In the aerospace industry, spacecraft often serve in harsh operating environments, so the design of ultra-lightweight and high-performance structures is a major requirement in aerospace structure design. In this article, a lightweight aerospace bracket considering fatigue performance was designed by topology optimization and manufactured by 3D-printing. Considering the requirements of assembly with a fixture for fatigue testing and avoiding stress concentration, a reconstructed model was presented by CAD software before manufacturing. To improve the fatigue performance of the structure, this article proposes the design idea of abstracting the practiced working condition of the bracket subjected to cycle loads in the vertical direction via a multiple load-case topology optimization problem by minimizing compliance under a variety of asymmetric extreme loading conditions. Parameter sweeping was used to improve the computational efficiency. The mass of the new bracket was reduced by 37% compared to the original structure. Both numerical simulation and the fatigue test were implemented to support the validity of the new bracket. This work indicates that the integration of the proposed topology optimization design method and additive manufacturing can be a powerful tool for the design of lightweight structures considering fatigue performance.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing technology such as 3D-printing provides a new way of manufacturing complex components by printing structures layer by layer with materials [1].Topology optimization is a structural optimization design method to distribute materials reasonably and to determine the optimal force transmitting path according to the specified load conditions, performance indicators, and constraints [2]
This paper proposed a combination of topology optimization and 3D-printing technology for designing and manufacturing of an aerospace bracket considering the fatigue performance
Under the guidance of the topology optimization result considering fatigue performance, a new aerospace bracket was redesigned by CAD software, and fabricated by selective melting (SLM)
Summary
Additive manufacturing technology such as 3D-printing provides a new way of manufacturing complex components by printing structures layer by layer with materials [1]. Et al [13] proposed the simulation of the stress state at the joint using a combined element and introduced the fatigue criterion as a constraint to the topology optimization design, while the p-norm equation was used to improve the computational efficiency, which was aimed at fatigue performance of multi riveted joint structures. Et al [18] applied the BESO method to study the topology optimization fatigue problem under a high cycle for research, which improved the computational efficiency of the algorithm by introducing a modified Goodman criterion and a modified equation; numerical examples were presented to prove the effectiveness of the algorithm.
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