Structural optimization of a wing body with uncertain aerodynamic loads

Abstract

An algorithm for the structural optimization of wing body structures is presented in this paper. The structural analysis for the computation of displacements and stresses within the wing body is based on a finite volume solver. The topology optimization, based on the original methodology which includes the SIMP algorithm and the smoothing of computed fields using the solution of the Helmholtz equation is implemented. This is applied to solve the minimum compliance problem in a wing-like structure in order to compute the optimal distribution of material within the body that maximizes its stiffness constrained by a user defined volume. The study takes into account the uncertainties in the loading of the wing model and the optimization is robust since the minimization of the mean value and standard deviation of the compliance is sought with respect to these uncertainties using a sparse grid-based technique.