Research Article

A novel substructure-based topology optimization method for the design of wing structure

¹ Engineering Simulation and Aerospace Computing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710072 Xi’an, Shaanxi, P.R. China
² Aircraft Strength Research Institute of China, 710065 Xi’an, Shaanxi, P.R. China

^* e-mail: yb.zhao@mail.nwpu.edu.cn

Received: 16 November 2016
Accepted: 17 November 2016

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a substructure-based method dealing with the optimal material layout of the aircraft wing structure system. In this method, the topology optimization design domain of the aircraft wing is divided into multiple subordinate topological units which are called substructure. The material layout of each subordinate topology design unit is found for maximizing the total stiffness under a prescribed material usage constraint by using the Solid Isotropic Microstructures with Penalization (SIMP) method. Firstly, the proposed method is implemented to find the optimal material layouts of a high aspect-ratio I-beam. Different division ways and material constraints of the substructure have proven important influence on the total stiffness. The design formulation is applied to the optimization of an aircraft wing. Compared with the traditional one, the proposed method can find a reasonable and clearer material layout of the wing, especially material piled up near the fixed end is pushed toward the tip or the middle of the wing. The optimized design indicates the proposed method can enhance the guidance of topology optimization in finding reasonable stiffener layouts of wing structure.