Probability-damage approach for fail-safe design optimization (PDFSO)

Abstract

[Abstract:] Fail-safe design often leads to oversized structures as the design must be able to behave properly for the different accidental situations that could undergo throughout their lifespan. The existing research about structural optimization applied to fail-safe design does not contemplate the idea of having accidental situations with different probabilities of occurrence. This means that the structure must satisfy the design constraints in the damaged structure regardless of whether one accidental situation is much more likely than another. The objective of this research is to formulate a new optimization strategy to get fail-safe structures with minimum weight taking into account the available data about the probability of occurrence associated to each partial collapse. A multi-model probabilistic optimization problem is defined and applied to two structures: a 2D truss structure with stress constraints as well as the tail section of an aircraft fuselage with stress and buckling constraints.