Design of a metal additive manufactured aircraft seat leg using topology optimization and part decomposition
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 6 May 2024
Issue publication date: 17 May 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The lightweight design of aircraft seats can significantly improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) can produce lightweight topology-optimized designs with improved performance, but limited build volume restricts the printing of large components. The purpose of this paper is to design a lightweight aircraft seat leg structure using topology optimization (TO) and MAM with build volume restrictions, while satisfying structural airworthiness certification requirements.
Design/methodology/approach
TO was used to determine a lightweight conceptual design for the seat leg structure. The conceptual design was decomposed to meet the machine build volume, a detailed CAD assembly was designed and print orientation was selected for each component. Static and dynamic verification was performed, the design was updated to meet the structural requirements and a prototype was manufactured.
Findings
The final topology-optimized seat leg structure was decomposed into three parts, yielding a 57% reduction in the number of parts compared to a reference design. In addition, the design achieved an 8.5% mass reduction while satisfying structural requirements for airworthiness certification.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first paper to design an aircraft seat leg structure manufactured with MAM using a rigorous TO approach. The resultant design reduces mass and part count compared to a reference design and is verified with respect to real-world aircraft certification requirements.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was performed through an international joint R&D project (Grant No. JE230014) by the Korean Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH). The authors are also grateful to their colleagues for their essential contributions to this work.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Citation
Kim, H., Crispo, L., Galley, N., Yeon, S.M., Son, Y. and Kim, I.Y. (2024), "Design of a metal additive manufactured aircraft seat leg using topology optimization and part decomposition", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 947-969. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-11-2023-0400
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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