Computer-assisted method for optimising surfaces of composite-material structures

• US 9,002,681 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2010
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations SL (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations SL (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Navarro Luna, Antonio, Valeriano La Torre, Jos
• Primary Examiner(s): Rivas, Omar Fernandez
• Assistant Examiner(s): LUU, CUONG V
• Application Number:
  US13/318,914
• Publication Number:
  US 20120123743A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,791 Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2113/24 Sheet material
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2113/26 Composites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2113/28 Fuselage, exterior or interior
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation

Abstract

Computer-assisted method for optimizing surfaces of composite-material structures as part of a design process that includes the following stages: a) Providing a multi-cell surface (11) of the structure obtained using aerodynamic calculations; b) Transforming said multi-cell surface (11) into an optimized surface (13) with fewer cells, concatenating contiguous cells and maintaining point and tangent continuity between them; c) Using said optimized surface (13) as geometric master when designing the components of the structure. The method is particularly applicable to the design of structures with a plurality of components and in particular fuselages of aircraft made of composite material. The invention also relates to a computer program for performing the method.

Claims

1. Computer-assisted method for designing a composite-material structure with a plurality of components, wherein it includes the following stages:

a) Providing a multi-cell surface (11) of the structure obtained using aerodynamic calculations;

b) Transforming said multi-cell surface (11) into an optimised surface (13) with fewer cells,

concatenating contiguous cells and maintaining point and tangent continuity between them;

c) Using said optimised surface (13) as master geometry when designing the components of the structure

wherein

step b) includes the following sub-stages, in the different zones (40) of the multi-cell surface (11);

b1) Breaking down each zone (40) of the multi-cell surface (11) itself into the cells (41₁, . . . , 41n) that comprise it;

b2) Obtaining the basic surfaces (43₁, . . . , 43_n) of said cells;

b3) Obtaining surfaces similar (45₁, . . . , 45_n) to said basic surfaces (43₁, . . . , 43_n) with the appropriate grading and segmentation;

b4) Matching contiguous surfaces (45_i, 45_j);

b5) Concatenating contiguous surfaces (45_i, 41_j) and

at least one of said steps is performed by a computer processor.

2. Computer-assisted method according to claim 1, wherein said composite-material structure is a structure of an aircraft.

3. Computer-assisted method according to claim 2, wherein said composite-material structure is a section of a fuselage of an aircraft.

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing program instructions, wherein when it is run on a computer with or as part of a CAD system it performs the method according to claim 1.