Su-Young Chang

Topology Optimization of a HDD Actuator Arm

A study on the topology optimization of Hard-Disk-Driver(HDD) actuator arm in free vibration is presented. The purpose of this research is to increasse the natural frequency of the first lateral mode of the HDD actuator arm under the constraint of total moment of inertia, so as to facilitate the position control of high speed actuator am. The first lateral mode is an important factor in the position control process. Thus the topology optimization for 2-D model of the HDD actuator arm is considered. A new objective function corresponding to multieigenvalue optimization is suggested to improve the solution of the eigenvalue optimization problem. The material density of the structure is treated as the design variable and the intermediate density is penalized. The effects of different element types and material property functions on the final topology are studied. When the problem is discretized using 8-node element of a uniform density, the smoothly-varying density field is obtained without checker-board patterns incurred. As a result of the study an improved design of the HDD actuator arm is suggested. Dynamic characteristics of the suggested design are compared computationally with those of the old design. With the same amount of the moment of inertia, the natural frequency of the first lateral mode or the suggested design is subsequently increased over the existing one.

Preliminary Thermal Analysis for LEO Satellite Optical Payload`s Thermal Vacuum Test

The purpose of satellite thermal control design is to maintain all the elements of a spacecraft system within their temperature limits for all mission phases. The thermal analysis model for Low Earth Orbit satellite payload level simulation is established by considering thermal vacuum test environment condition, thermal vacuum chamber configuration, and satellite`s payload inner thermal environment. The established thermal analysis model is used to determine thermal vacuum test conditions and test case requirements.

Material cloud method - A new topology optimization method

A newly developed material cloud method (MCM) for topology optimization is presented. In MCM, an optimal structure can be found by optimizing sizes and positions of material clouds, which are lumps of material with specified properties. A numerical analysis for a specific distribution of material clouds is carried out using fixed background finite element mesh. Optimal material distribution can be extracted from material clouds’ distribution. In MCM, an expansion-reduction procedure of design domain for finding out true optimal solution can be naturally realized. Also the convergence of material distribution is faster and well-defined material distribution with fewer intermediate densities can be obtained. In addition, the control of minimum-member sizes in the material distribution can be realized to a certain extent. In this paper, basic concept of MCM is introduced, and optimization results through MCM are compared with those of the traditional density distribution method (DDM) for 2D problems and also for a 3D problem.

A Study on the Optimization of Ply Angles for Composite Tube using Design of Experiments

Composite has become one of the most frequently used material for a tube of satellite camera due to its attractive characteristics. However, laminated composites can be weakened by delamination which comes from interlaminar stress. Such failure mode cause structural instability of the camera as well as degradation of optical quality. Therefore composite tube should be robust in delamination. Also, composite tube should have high stiffness, sufficient high natural frequency and small coefficient of thermal expansion. The design procedures presented in this paper are based on design of experiments. The experiments for mechanical analysis are designed by the tables of orthogonal arrays. In order to manipulate the various mechanical properties systematically, multiple-attribute decision making(MADM) is employed. Through analysis of variance and F-test, the critical design variables which have dominant influences on mechanical performance are determined. Finally improved ply angles for composite tube are determined.

Topology Optimization Through Material Cloud Method

A material cloud method, which is a new topology optimization method, is presented. In MCM, an optimal structure can be found out by manipulating sizes and positions of material clouds, which are lumps of material with specified properties. A numerical analysis for a specific distribution of material clouds is carried out using fixed background finite element mesh. Optimal material distribution can be element-wisely extracted from material clouds` distribution. In MCM, an expansion-reduction procedure of design domain for finding out better optimal solution can be naturally realized. Also the convergence of material distribution is faster and well-defined material distribution with fewer intermediate densities can be obtained. In addition, the control of minimum-member sizes in the material distribution can be realized to some extent. In this paper, basic concept of MCM is introduced, and formulation and optimization results of MCM are compared with those of the traditional density distribution method(DDM).

Efforts in developing design and simulation tools for MEMS: DS/MEMS and CA/MEMS

In this work, multi-physics simulation software (CA/MEMS) and design-optimization software (DS/MEMS) tailored for MEMS devices are introduced. The CA/MEMS, which is a simulation engine for DS/MEMS, is a 3-D multi-physics analysis code utilizing various numerical methods such as FEM, BEM and FVM to efficiently model MEMS application problems. The current CA/MEMS includes analysis- modules for structural, thermal, electric, electromagnetic and fluidic fields and is capable of the analyses of various coupled- field problems for MEMS applications. DS/MEMS is design optimization engine for MEMS devices. With integrating CA/MEMS and pre/post processor into CAD environment, DS/MEMS is organized to work in parametric CAD platform. DS/MEMS consists of optimal design module and robust design module. The optimal design module provides users three methods nonlinear programming, Taguchi parameter design and the response surface method. The robust design module, which is specially developed for MEMS application, can be used to minimize the perturbation of performances of MEMS devices under uncertainties of MEMS devices, such as process tolerance and the change of operating environments. To verify the efficiency and accuracy of CA/MEMS and the practical usefulness of DS/MEMS, we have been comparing the simulated results of CA/MEMS with those of other commercial codes and experimental data of manufactured MEMS devices, and investigating the performances of the optimized designs through DS/MEMS.