Lightweight Structures

Abstract

The lecture deals with manufacturing methods, materials, design principles, and analytical sizing methods. The goal is to provide a sound understanding about lightweight load-carrying structures, enabling the students to assess the structural strength and failure behaviour of minimum-weight structures.

Objective

For economical and ecological reasons the significance of lightweight design is continually growing. For aerospace structures lightweight design is a necessity. In addition, light and energy saving solutions play today an ever more important role in many of the traditional mechanical engineering and automotive sectors. Lightweight design is a major of a pronounced interdisciplinary character. The lecture class reflects this by treating the topics of lightweight structures, manufacturing methods, lightweight materials, design principles, and analytical sizing methods. The goal of the lecture class is to transfer sound basics for the understanding of modern lightweight designs and to enable the students to assess the structural strength and failure behaviour of minimum-weight structures considered by mechanical engineering generally and the automotive and aerospace sectors in particular. Depending on their geometry and load state, load-carrying structures can be idealised as one-dimensional (trusses, ropes, bars) or two-dimensional (plates, membranes, shells) structural elements. The structural engineer must be able to choose the best possible idealization of a complex structure for any required analysis accuracy. Practice shows that lightweight structures are often made of slender, thin-walled designs which can globally, and with good accuracy, be calculated as truss-like frame works and / or skin-stringer panels. The analysis of structures and load-carrying parts of an aeroplane or a ground vehicle are here mentioned as examples. Such structural elements play thus a prominent role in lightweight design and form therefore the main topic of this lecture class. Emphasis is also placed on developing the ability to apply the gained knowledge to the solution of the lightweight design problems provided by engineering reality.

Content

Introduction Principles of lightweight design Lightweight materials: properties, technologies, and manufacturing methods of light metals and composite materials Frameworks Truss structures: general relations, response to bending, shear, torsion, and combined loading of open and closed thin-walled profiles Skin-stringer panels: The lecture class activities include two excursions. During the afternoon of April 12th the class will visit the company Alu Menziken. The whole day of June 7th will be spent for an excursion to Stadler Rail in Altenrhein and Busnang.

Resources