Optimisation of CFRP Stiffened Panels of Aircraft
Dates
Start date: 1 September 2011
End date: 31 August 2012
Summary
Design of weight efficient Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) aero structures is a challenging task due to the following reasons. First, panel design involves in multi-disciplinary criteria such as stress, fatigue, buckling, control surface effectiveness, weight and cost. Second, the complexity of panel design is very high and a large number of parameters need to be optimised. Third, panel design is conducted in the presence of a large number of uncertainties, including changes in loading condition. Finally, the market is increasingly competitive and therefore, the allowed time for design becomes shorter. All these challenges require a generic tool and efficient design tool for panel design.
The aim of this project is to develop a user-friendly and powerful software tool for CTRP panel design. The software consists in a number of the state-of-the-art optimisation algorithms that can be chosen by the user. In addition, different criteria can also be specified for different purpose. The choice of optimisation algorithms, optimisation criteria as well as the constraints for optimisation can be made using a graphic user interface.
Funding
EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Account (GR/T10101/01)
Collaborations
Industrial partner: Aero Optimal Ltd