SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF AIRFRAME ASSEMBLY PROCESS

An approach for simulating the assembly process where compliant airframe parts are being joined by riveting is presented. The foundation of this approach is the mathematical model based on the reduction of the corresponding contact problem to a Quadratic Programming (QP) problem. The use of efficient QP algorithms enables mass contact problem solving on refined grids, which is needed for variation analysis and simulation as well as for the consequent assembly process optimization. To perform variation simulation, the initial gap between the parts is assumed to be stochastic and a cloud of such gaps is generated based on statistical analysis of the available measurements. The developed approach is illustrated with two examples, simulation of A350-900 wing-to-fuselage joining and optimization of A320 wing box assembly. New contact quality measures are discussed.