Rapid Aerostructural Design with Direct Toolpath Generation for Wings built with Fused Filament Fabrication
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Valenti, Justin D
- Graduate Program:
- Aerospace Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 10, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Michael Yukish, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Mark Maughmer, Major Field Member
Nicholas Meisel, Outside Unit & Field Member
Simon Miller, Outside Field Member
Amy Pritchett, Program Head/Chair
Jacob Langelaan, Major Field Member
Joseph Bartolai, Special Member - Keywords:
- UAV
Additive Manufacturing
DfAM
Lifting-Line
Digital Engineering
Aircraft Design
3D Printing - Abstract:
- This dissertation presents a product architecture and design tool developed specifically for wings built with Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). The architecture was developed in concert with aerodynamic and structural design methods to ensure that the intended design is properly captured by the toolpath used by the FFF machine to manufacture the wing. The custom design tool, named G-wing, instantiates the product architecture and design methods. Alignment of the product architecture, design methods, and the manufacturing method drastically reduces the time from initial concept to built wing. G-wing automates the design workflow from desired aerodynamic behavior to G-code, the instructions for the FFF machine. The workflow consists of three main steps: (1) aerodynamic design, (2) structural design, and (3) manufacturing process design. The implementation of each step was developed for speed and compatibility with the other steps, maintaining design intent throughout. Aerodynamic design generates the outer mold line of the wing and uses novel inverse design methods developed from lifting-line theory. Structural design generates the internal structure and uses novel algorithms based in beam-bending theory and experimentally derived constraints to support and mitigate the deformation of the single extrusion skin during the build process. Notably, mitigation of skin deformation drives structural design in the majority of cases. The wing design is then converted directly into the G-code files for the FFF machine without Computer Aided Design (CAD) or slicing software in the critical path to G-code. The entire G-wing workflow can be executed in less than 5 minutes on an engineering laptop. All design methods are either computationally or experimentally validated. Wings made with G-wing have been successfully flight tested. A case study is provided demonstrating the ability to move from initial design to completed wing with 3 labor hours spread over 3 days.