Date: Friday, August 3, 2007
Time: 11:00am
Location: NIA, Room 137
Additional Information: Presentation (.pdf)
Design and Optimization of Structures Using Additive Manufacturing Processes
Prof. Rakesh K. Kapania, Virginia Tech
We have all heard the stories of how during World War II, Rosie the Riveter saved the world by pumping tens, if not hundreds, of millions of rivets to build thousands of fighters. Rosie can finally retire now. Ongoing revolution in information management, materials science, computational science and manufacturing technology has made it now possible to fabricate new generation of, mostly custom-built, structures that will have a low part count, built-in multi-functionality, and an ability to tailor the structure according to the design requirements. Termed Unitized Structures, these structures are formed by adding or building up material as opposed to Subtractive (i.e. taking the material away as in machining) or Formative (casting) methods of manufacturing. Built using a family of processes that go under such names as Rapid Manufacturing, Rapid Prototyping, Solid Freeform Fabrication, Additive Manufacturing technologies, etc. these structures would be built by Debbie the Digital Fabricator by the click of the computer mouse as opposed to pumping of the rivet gun. To that end, for nearly three years, under a grant from NASA Langley Research Center (Karen Taminger, grant monitor), administered by the National Institute of Aerospace (Dr. David Peake, TM), we have been developing a computer environment that will help NASA optimally design unitized structures built using such approaches as the Electronic Beam Free Form Fabrication, EBF3, and will make use of the design flexibility (efficient use of geometry) made possible by these new manufacturing technologies. The environment, EBF3PanelOpt, involves an integration of continuous mesh generation, optimization, NURBS to represent curvilinear stiffeners, and commercial finite element software. The talk will describe the progress made to date, the challenges faced and our vision of future research in this area.
About the Speaker: Dr. Rakesh K. Kapania, an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, is a professor of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and director of the Multidisciplinary Analysis and Design Center for Advanced Vehicles at Virginia Tech. He has been associated with NASA Langley Research Center for more than 22 years. He has co-authored more than 95 archival journal papers and nearly 180 papers in conference proceedings in the area of aerospace structures. He has guided 25 Ph.D’s (another 9 in progress) and 30 M.S. theses (additional two in progress) to completion. From 1995-1997, he served as an associate editor of the AIAA Journal (also serving presently) and is a member of the editorial board Smart Structures and Systems and the AIAA Educational Series. A former technical editor of the prestigious Applied Mechanics Reviews, he is a recipient of Boeing's Welliver Fellowship for 1996 and the Dean's Award for Excellence in Research in 2000.
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