Session: 01-04-02: Advances in Aerospace Structures

Paper Number: 110657

110657 - Challenges in Topology Optimization for Complex Aerospace Structure and Design 

With the digital transformation of aerospace engineering, the digital twin demands high-fidelity computational models to be integrated across scale and disciplines.  This enables the higher order and nonlinear behaviors to cross multiple models, which open up opportunities to make a structure lighter and more efficient via multifunctionalities.  This is evident in the range of new aerospace structures entering the market place, e.g. urban air mobility, electrical aircraft, drones, space travels. The variety of aerospace vehicles today are considering a huge range of novel flying configurations, which raises the challenges of anticipating all consequences and operating conditions for safety.  It is well-known that complex systems such as aerospace structures have inherent unintended consequences which have been learnt over many years of accumulating know-hows and expertise, sometimes through costly and unfortunate accidents. In order to minimize the increased risks in safety in these new configurations, it is important that we integrate our high-fidelity digital models in the most mathematically stable way to identify all unintended consequences often hidden in nonlinearity and coupling across the disciplinary boundaries. 

We develop topology optimization as the highest fidelity design optimization methodology which can consider coupled multiphysics and multiscale effects.  Aeroelasticity is perhaps the most studied coupled physics for wing design in modern engineering. Today, we have additional challenges of integrating high thermal effects, where we found that the geometrical nonlinearity becomes ubiquitous and they can fundamentally change the optimal configuration or design. There are additional challenges in electrical aircraft where the batteries are not designed to be exposed to a range of mechanical and thermal conditions and the additional systems to isolate the batteries from the external conditions add prohibitive weight to the aerospace systems. The recent developments and discoveries of new computational material design and the material genome initiative (MGI) introduce opportunities to tailor fit-for-purpose multifunctional materials however, the challenges in multiscale mechanical and optimization remain substantial. This presentation will provide an overview of the recent advances in computational design optimization methods in aerospace structures and the critical challenges in maximizing the high-fidelity multiphysics and multiscale digital twin in design. 

Presenting Author: H. Alicia Kim University of California, San Diego

Presenting Author Biography: Professor in the Structural Engineering Department of UC San Diego. She leads the M2DO lab (Multiscale and multiphysics design optimization) and is the director of the Center for DREAMS (Dynamically Responsive Emergent Architected Material Systems). Her research areas are in topology optimization, optimization for coupled problems, multi scale, computational mechanics, composite and architected materials, digital engineering and integrated computational materials engineering.

Authors:

H. Alicia Kim University of California, San Diego