Feasibility study on the design, manufacturing and economic potential of fibre reinforced polymer lattice structures for wind turbine towers

Cost is a design driver in any commercial business, and this is not different in the wind energy industry. The potential of cost savings on wind turbine towers through lightweight composite designs has been shown. However composite grid stiffened and lattice structures, which were shown to lead to significant weight reductions in aerospace...

Topology optimization of 3D linkages with application to morphing winglets

Topology optimization is the process of optimizing both the material layout and the connectivity inside a design domain. The first paper on topology optimization dates back to 1904, when the Australian inventor Michell derived optimality criteria for minimum weight truss structures. In 1988 Bendsøe and Kikuchi published the pioneering paper ...

Optimization of stiffened panels using a combination of FEM and a predictor-corrector interior point method

Structural optimization, first introduced by Schmidt in 1960, is a rapid growing factor in the development of new aerospace structures. This growth is established by the increase in numerical modelling techniques, cheaper computer power, the increasing cost of production and competition between companies. The combination of both structural...

Evaluating the acoustoelastic coupling in an industrial gas turbine annular combustor

Medium Fidelity Aeroelastic Wingbox Optimisation

In aeroelastic research the interaction between the structural wing and the aerodynamics is investigated. Currently the wingbox structures, as other components, are manufactured out of composite materials to replace the metallic airplanes. Composites have the ability to be designed by defining the orientation and thickness of a laminate. This...

A Variational Formulation for Thin Membranes

Membrane structures have a rich history of use across many disciplines and are widely used in aerospace and structural engineering applications. A few examples can be found in solar sails, atmospheric balloons and parachutes. These membranes have many advantages, including their ability to take complex shapes and their low mass to surface ratio,...