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At least 91 records · Page 5

Structural Design Methodology Based on Concepts of Uncertainty

In this report, an approach to damage-tolerant aircraft structural design is proposed based on the concept of an equivalent "Level of Safety" that incorporates past service experience in the design of new structures. The discrete "Level of Safety" for a single inspection event is defined as the compliment of the probability that a single flaw size larger than the critical flaw size for residual strength of the structure exists, and that the flaw will not be detected. The cumulative "Level of Safety" for the entire structure is the product of the discrete "Level of Safety" values for each flaw of each damage type present at each location in the structure. Based on the definition of "Level of Safety", a design procedure was identified and demonstrated on a composite sandwich panel for various damage types, with results showing the sensitivity of the structural sizing parameters to the relative safety of the design. The "Level of Safety" approach has broad potential application to damage-tolerant aircraft structural design with uncertainty.

Lin, K. Y.↗

Arrow-wing supersonic cruise aircraft structural design concepts evaluation. Volume 4: Sections 15 through 21

The analyses performed to provide structural mass estimates for the arrow wing supersonic cruise aircraft are presented. To realize the full potential for structural mass reduction, a spectrum of approaches for the wing and fuselage primary structure design were investigated. The objective was: (1) to assess the relative merits of various structural arrangements, concepts, and materials; (2) to select the structural approach best suited for the Mach 2.7 environment; and (3) to provide construction details and structural mass estimates based on in-depth structural design studies. Production costs, propulsion-airframe integration, and advanced technology assessment are included.

Sakata, I. F.↗

Component-wise reduced order model lattice-type structure design

Lattice-type structures can provide a combination of stiffness with light weight that is desirable in a variety of applications. Design optimization of these structures must rely on approximations of the governing physics to render solution of a mathematical model feasible. In this paper, we propose a topology optimization (TO) formulation that approximates the governing physics using component-wise reduced order modeling as introduced in Huynh et al. (2013); Eftang and Patera (2013), which can reduce solution time by multiple orders of magnitude over a full-order finite element model while providing a relative error in the solution of 1%. In addition, the offline training data set from such component-wise models is reusable, allowing its application to many design problems for only the cost of a single offline training phase, and the component-wise method is nearly embarrassingly parallel. We also show how the parameterization chosen in our optimization allows a simplification of the component-wise reduced order model (CWROM) not noted in previous literature, for further speedup of the optimization process. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the compliance with respect to the particular parameterization is derived solely at the component level. In numerical examples, we demonstrate a 1000x speedup over a full-order FEM model with relative error of 1% and show minimum compliance designs for two different cantilever beam examples, one smaller and one larger. Finally, error bounds for the displacement field, compliance, and compliance sensitivity of the CWROM are derived.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA Conference on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design, volume 1

This publication contains the proceedings of the Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA conference on Fibrous Composites in structural Design. Presentations were made in the following areas of composite structural design: perspectives in composites; design methodology; design applications; design criteria; supporting technology; damage tolerance; and manufacturing.

Soderquist, Joseph R.↗

Integrated control-structure design

A new approach for the design and control of flexible space structures is described. The approach integrates the structure and controller design processes thereby providing extra opportunities for avoiding some of the disastrous effects of control-structures interaction and for discovering new, unexpected avenues of future structural design. A control formulation based on Boyd's implementation of Youla parameterization is employed. Control design parameters are coupled with structural design variables to produce a set of integrated-design variables which are selected through optimization-based methodology. A performance index reflecting spacecraft mission goals and constraints is formulated and optimized with respect to the integrated design variables. Initial studies have been concerned with achieving mission requirements with a lighter, more flexible space structure. Details of the formulation of the integrated-design approach are presented and results are given from a study involving the integrated redesign of a flexible geostationary platform.

Hunziker, K. Scott↗

A generalized concept for cost-effective structural design

A generalized concept for cost-effective structural design is introduced. It is assumed that decisions affecting the cost effectiveness of aerospace structures fall into three basic categories: design, verification, and operation. Within these basic categories, certain decisions concerning items such as design configuration, safety factors, testing methods, and operational constraints are to be made. All or some of the variables affecting these decisions may be treated probabilistically. Bayesian statistical decision theory is used as the tool for determining the cost optimum decisions. A special case of the general problem is derived herein, and some very useful parametric curves are developed and applied to several sample structures.

Thomas, J. M.↗

Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA Conference on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design, volume 3

This publication contains the proceedings of the Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA Conference on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design held at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, during 4-7 Nov. 1991. Presentations were made in the following areas of composite structural design: perspectives in composites, design methodology, design applications, design criteria, supporting technology, damage tolerance, and manufacturing.

Soderquist, Joseph R.↗

Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA Conference on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design, volume 2

This publication contains the proceedings of the Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA Conference on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design held at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, during 4-7 Nov. 1991. Presentations were made in the following areas of composite structural design: perspectives in composites, design methodology, design applications, design criteria, supporting technology, damage tolerance, and manufacturing.

Soderquist, Joseph R.↗

EV30: Structural Design and Analysis Division

EV30 provides support to customers with structural design, analysis, and definition of induced environments. These disciplines are responsible for assuring the structural integrity of spacecraft and launch vehicle primary structures, subsystems, mechanisms, and components to ensure designs for this hardware meet structural requirements and performance goals.

Patrick V Hull↗

OPTICON: Pro-Matlab software for large order controlled structure design

A software package for large order controlled structure design is described and demonstrated. The primary program, called OPTICAN, uses both Pro-Matlab M-file routines and selected compiled FORTRAN routines linked into the Pro-Matlab structure. The program accepts structural model information in the form of state-space matrices and performs three basic design functions on the model: (1) open loop analyses; (2) closed loop reduced order controller synthesis; and (3) closed loop stability and performance assessment. The current controller synthesis methods which were implemented in this software are based on the Generalized Linear Quadratic Gaussian theory of Bernstein. In particular, a reduced order Optimal Projection synthesis algorithm based on a homotopy solution method was successfully applied to an experimental truss structure using a 58-state dynamic model. These results are presented and discussed. Current plans to expand the practical size of the design model to several hundred states and the intention to interface Pro-Matlab to a supercomputing environment are discussed.

Peterson, Lee D.↗

On the role of minicomputers in structural design

Results are presented of exploratory studies on the use of a minicomputer in conjunction with large-scale computers to perform structural design tasks, including data and program management, use of interactive graphics, and computations for structural analysis and design. An assessment is made of minicomputer use for the structural model definition and checking and for interpreting results. Included are results of computational experiments demonstrating the advantages of using both a minicomputer and a large computer to solve a large aircraft structural design problem.

Storaasli, O. O.↗

Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) Fuselage Structural Design for Weight Reduction

Structural analysis and design of efficient pressurized fuselage configurations for the advanced Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) flight vehicle is a challenging problem. Unlike a conventional cylindrical pressurized fuselage, stress level in a box type BWB fuselage is an order of magnitude higher, because internal pressure primarily results in bending stress instead of skin-membrane stress. In addition, resulting deformation of aerodynamic surface could significantly affect performance advantages provided by lifting body. The pressurized composite conformal multi-lobe tanks of X-33 type space vehicle also suffered from similar problem. In the earlier BWB design studies, Vaulted Ribbed Shell (VLRS), Flat Ribbed Shell (FRS); Vaulted shell Honeycomb Core (VLHC) and Flat sandwich shell Honeycomb Core (FLHC) concepts were studied. The flat and vaulted ribbed shell concepts were found most efficient. In a recent study, a set of composite sandwich panel and cross-ribbed panel were analyzed. Optimal values of rib and skin thickness, rib spacing, and panel depth were obtained for minimal weight under stress and buckling constraints. In addition, a set of efficient multi-bubble fuselage (MBF) configuration concept was developed. The special geometric configuration of this concept allows for balancing internal cabin pressure load efficiently, through membrane stress in inner-stiffened shell and inter-cabin walls, while the outer-ribbed shell prevents buckling due to external resultant compressive loads. The initial results from these approximate finite element analyses indicate progressively lower maximum stresses and deflections compared to the earlier study. However, a relative comparison of the FEM weight per unit floor area of the segment unit indicates that the unit weights are still relatively higher that the conventional B777 type cylindrical or A380 type elliptic fuselage design. Due to the manufacturing concern associated with multi-bubble fuselage, a Y braced box-type fuselage alternative with special resin-film injected (RFI) stitched carbon composite with foam-core was designed by Boeing under a NASA research contract for the 480 passenger version. It is shown that this configuration can be improved to a modified multi-bubble fuselage which has better stress distribution, for same material and dimension.

Mukhopadhyay, V.↗