Optimal design of ribbed-stiffened machined structures through material layout optimization

Abstract

Ribbed stiffened machined structures are commonly used in the aerospace and automotive applications. This study presents a comprehensive approach to develop the lightweight configurations of such machined structures under axial loading. The optimized topologies (material layout) were studied by employing the Abaqus topology optimization (ATOM) module. Data was analyzed to establish the optimum values of the dependent (optimized volume, strain energy, mechanical stress, and maximum deformation) and independent parameters (axial force, initial design domain, targeted volume, and number of nodes) through the evolutionary genetic algorithm (GA). GA fitness functions were developed through the best regression models that attained through a statistical appraisal of optimal topological configurations. GA predicted results were compared with the data of topological optimized evolutions. Structural performance of the optimized configurations was also evaluated by comparing with the available experimental results. The optimized configurations showed a better strength to stiffness performance under stipulated design constraints.