Topology optimization method for concentrated force diffusion on stiffened curved shell of revolution

Designing concentrated force diffusion structures on stiffened curved shells is necessary to improve the concentrated force diffusion ability of spacecraft structure connectors. The traditional radial rib design method generally depends on design experience and is difficult to satisfy the requirement of efficient concentrated force diffusion in most cases. Therefore, a topology optimization method for concentrated force diffusion on stiffened curved shells is proposed in this paper. In the first step, a topology optimization method for concentrated force diffusion is developed based on the anisotropic filtering technique to ensure that the topology optimization result satisfies the manufacturing requirement of stiffened curved shells. In the second step, an intelligent reconstruction method for the topology optimization result is proposed based on the mesh deformation technique, which can efficiently and accurately reconstruct the topology optimization result in the form of the stiffened curved shell of revolution. Based on the proposed method, a case study is conducted on the docking ring of the satellite platform, which is a typical structure of stiffened curved shell. The result of the proposed optimization method is compared with those of the traditional radial rib design method and the traditional topology optimization method by commercial software. Comparison results indicate that the proposed optimization method can obtain optimization results with a clear stiffener configuration and satisfy the manufacturing requirements of the stiffened curved shell, with the advantages of good concentration force diffusion efficiency, low dependence on mesh quality, and efficient reconstruction ability of topology features. © 2021, Beihang University Aerospace Knowledge Press. All right reserved.