Load Path Visualization in Engine Structures

Abstract

From an engineering perspective, it is crucial to employ lightweight and cost-effective components in structures for optimal design, sustainability, and structural efficiency. The pursuit of such design has always been a challenge for mechanical engineers, and this is especially true in the case of the aerospace industry, where safety and function cannot be compromised. Though there are many ways to achieve this goal, the potential to use structural analysis and load path visualization for the same purpose is explored in the current work. The possibility of using the insights gained from the load path analysis to bring about changes in the structure for achieving desirable mechanical properties forms the objective of the current work. A relatively new concept of U∗ index is used, which eliminates the complications involved in the conventional stress-based approach to predict the trajectory of load transfer through the structure. The thesis aims to improve previous research in the field by introducing distributed loading boundary conditions and principal load path extraction. The finite element calculations required for the U∗ index are performed in ANSYS MAPDL using a script formulated specifically for the purpose. The post-processing to visualize the load paths through the structure is done in ParaView. Several case studies are done to visualize the load paths through 2D and 3D structures. Two design criteria, namely the uniformity and continuity curves, are studied for the principal load paths in each of these cases. The work also aims to investigate the effectiveness of the U∗ index method in predicting the transfer of loads through structures when boundary conditions of the domain are altered. The challenges and restrictions that come with using the U∗ index approach are also discussed in detail, thus paving the way for future study and research in the field.