TY - CHAP
T1 - Computational Methodology for Optimal Design of Additive Layer Manufactured Turbine Bracket
AU - Levatti, H. U.
AU - Innocente, Mauro Sebastian
AU - Morgan, H. D.
AU - Cherry, J.
AU - Lavery, N. P.
AU - Mehmood, S.
AU - Cameron, I.
AU - Sienz, J.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The design of critical components for aircrafts, cars or any other kind of machinery today is
typically subject to two conflicting objectives, namely the maximisation of strength and the
minimisation of weight. The conflicting nature of these two objectives makes it impossible to
obtain a design that is optimal for both. The most common approach aiming for a single
objective optimisation problem in aerospace is to maintain the weight minimisation as the
objective, whilst setting strength requirements as constraints to be satisfied. However,
manufacturing methods incorporate additional restrictions for an optimal design to be
considered feasible, even when satisfying all constraints in the formulation of the
optimisation problem. In this context, Additive Layer Manufacturing adds remarkably higher
flexibility to the manufacturability of shape designs when compared with traditional
processes. It is fair to note, however, that there are still some restrictions such as the
infeasibility of building unsupported layers forming angles smaller than 45 degrees with
respect to the underlying one.
Nowadays, it is common practice to use a set of software tools to deal with these kinds of
problems, namely Computer Aided Design (CAD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and
optimisation packages. The adequate use of these tools results in an increase in efficiency
and quality of the final product. In this paper, a case study was undertaken consisting of a
turbine bracket from a General Electric challenge (Figure 5). A computational methodology
is used, which consists of a topology optimisation considering an isotropic material at first
instance, followed by the manual refinement of the resulting shape taking into account the
manufacturability requirements. To this end, we used SolidWorks®2013 for the CAD, Ansys
Workbench®14.0 for the FEA, and HyperWorks®11 for the topology optimisation. A future
methodology will incorporate the automation of the shape optimisation stage, and perhaps
the inclusion of the manufacturability restriction within the optimisation formulation.
AB - The design of critical components for aircrafts, cars or any other kind of machinery today is
typically subject to two conflicting objectives, namely the maximisation of strength and the
minimisation of weight. The conflicting nature of these two objectives makes it impossible to
obtain a design that is optimal for both. The most common approach aiming for a single
objective optimisation problem in aerospace is to maintain the weight minimisation as the
objective, whilst setting strength requirements as constraints to be satisfied. However,
manufacturing methods incorporate additional restrictions for an optimal design to be
considered feasible, even when satisfying all constraints in the formulation of the
optimisation problem. In this context, Additive Layer Manufacturing adds remarkably higher
flexibility to the manufacturability of shape designs when compared with traditional
processes. It is fair to note, however, that there are still some restrictions such as the
infeasibility of building unsupported layers forming angles smaller than 45 degrees with
respect to the underlying one.
Nowadays, it is common practice to use a set of software tools to deal with these kinds of
problems, namely Computer Aided Design (CAD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and
optimisation packages. The adequate use of these tools results in an increase in efficiency
and quality of the final product. In this paper, a case study was undertaken consisting of a
turbine bracket from a General Electric challenge (Figure 5). A computational methodology
is used, which consists of a topology optimisation considering an isotropic material at first
instance, followed by the manual refinement of the resulting shape taking into account the
manufacturability requirements. To this end, we used SolidWorks®2013 for the CAD, Ansys
Workbench®14.0 for the FEA, and HyperWorks®11 for the topology optimisation. A future
methodology will incorporate the automation of the shape optimisation stage, and perhaps
the inclusion of the manufacturability restriction within the optimisation formulation.
M3 - Chapter
SN - 978-0-9561516-5-0
SN - 978-0-9561516-6-7
SN - 978-0-9561516-4-3
VL - 1
SP - 641
EP - 652
BT - KES Transactions on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing
A2 - Setchi, R.
A2 - Howlett, R. J.
A2 - Naim, M.
A2 - Sienz, J.
PB - Future Technology Press
CY - England, UK
T2 - International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing
Y2 - 28 April 2015 through 30 April 2015
ER -