A multi-disciplinary optimisation model for passenger aircraft wing structures with manufacturing and cost considerations

Wang, L

Abstract

In traditional aircraft wing structural design, the emphasis has been on pursuing the
minimum weight or improved performance. The manufacturing complexity or cost
assessments are rarely considered because it is usually assumed that the minimum
weight design is also the minimum cost design. However, experience from industry
has shown that this is not necessarily the case. It has been realised that in the cases
where no manufacturing constraints are imposed, the extra machining cost can erode
the advantages of the reduced weight. As manufacturing cost includes material cost
and machining cost, whilst reducing weight can reduce the material cost, if the
manufacturing complexity increases greatly as a result the overall cost may not go
down. Indeed, if the manufacturing complexity is not checked, the machining cost
could increase by more than the amount by which the material cost reduces.
To enable the structural manufacturing complexity to be controlled, manufacturing
constraints are established in this thesis and integrated into the optimisation of the
aircraft wing structural design. As far as the manufacturing complexity is concerned,
attention has been paid to both 3-axis and 5-axis machining. The final designs of
optimisations with manufacturing constraints prove the efficiency of these constraints
in guiding the design in the manufacturing-feasible direction.

Citation

Wang, L. A multi-disciplinary optimisation model for passenger aircraft wing structures with manufacturing and cost considerations. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2000