MAE546 Final Project

Fillet Optimization
 Problem Description
• The fillet inside the valve chamber needs to be added and optimized so that the
stress is minimized, while at the same time cost constraints on the part dictate a
maximum mass for the part’s material. You will need to setup an optimization run
that allows the fillet radius to vary while at the same time minimizing the fillet
stress and the part’s volume. The maximum mass will be a constraint on the
optimization. We will consider this fillet radius determination a preliminary design
step. You will perform additional analyses later as part of a more detailed design
step.

Fillet Radius to
be optimized

Units: In., lb. …

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-2
 Problem Description (cont.)
Boundary Conditions:

• Fixed support on 8 half cylinder

faces making up the bottom holes.
This will provide a sufficient
constraint for the objective of this
project.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-3
 Problem Description (cont.)
Boundary Conditions (cont.):

• Pressure of 3400 psi on interior

faces of each part

Hints: Apply to each body

separately; utilize hide and
section plots to aid in pressure
application

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 Problem Description (cont.)
Material properties:

Young’s
Detail Density Poisson's
Material Description Modulus
Nomenclature Ratio
(psi) (lb/in3)

Valve Manifold 7050-T73511 1.03E+07 0.102 0.33

Filter Bowl 7075_T7351 1.04E+07 0.101 0.33

Note: we will include linear material properties only for the optimization, with
the assumption that the stresses in the fillet of interest will be well below the
yield stress of the material.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-5
 Note: The units for this project are
Instructions Inch (DesignModeler Window)
US Engineering lb, in, … (Workbench Window)
US Customary in, lbm, lbf, …(Mechanical window)

1. Launch ANSYS Workbench 16.0.

2. Insert a Geometry block and link to the geometry file valve_asm.stp

3. Edit the geometry in DesignModeler to create the fillet as shown on p. Opt-2.

A. To do this, orient the model such that you can see the inside of the filter bowl, select the
edges that make up the intersection between the inner side and end of the bowl, Create >
Fixed Radius Blend.
B. Give the radius a value of 0.35 in.
C. Make the radius value a parameter in DesignModeler by clicking in the box to the left of
the radius value, making it a [D] parameter. Name the parameter DS_Radius.

4. In the Workbench window, add a new Static Structural Analysis block linked to this geometry.

5. In Engineering Data create and define the materials shown on the previous page.

6. Open Mechanical, make sure units are set to US Customary in, lbm, lbf, …and assign the
correct material properties to your geometry.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-6
Instructions Note: The units for this project are
US Engineering lb, in, … (Workbench Window) and
US Customary in, lbm, lbf, …(Mechanical window)

7. Mesh using an element size of 0.25 in

and the Aggressive Mechanical shape
checking option. Make sure Use
Advanced Size Function is set to Off.

8. Assign the boundary conditions as

described on pages Opt-3 and Opt-4.

9. In Analysis Settings, turn off Weak

Springs. We will leave everything else as
default settings so we will have a linear
analysis (faster for the sake of
optimization)

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Instructions
10. Insert the following results plots:

A. Total Deformation
B. Equivalent Stress
C. Maximum Principal Stress
D. A Maximum Principal Stress plot scoped to the inside
upper end of the filter bowl, including the fillet surfaces
you added in DesignModeler (3 total faces)
11. Make the maximum of the Maximum Principal Stress plot
created in 9.D. above a parameter by clicking on the
appropriate box in the Details view for that plot, making it a
[P] parameter

12. In the Geometry branch Details view in Properties, make the

mass value a [P] parameter

13. Solve both the static structural analysis

14. Review the total deformation and stress plots

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Instructions
You should have 1 input parameter (fillet radius) and 2 output parameters (mass and
fillet maximum principal stress). We will now setup a Design of Experiments as the first
step in the optimization process.

15. In the Workbench window, make sure you have the three paramaters mentioned
above by double clicking the Parameter Set bar:

1.

2.
3.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-9
Instructions
16. Expand the Design Exploration portion of the Workbench toolbox at
lower left. Drag and drop a Response Surface directly below the
Parameters Set bar so that it looks like this:

17. Double click on the Design of Experiments cell. This will open up a DOE
tab in the Workbench window

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-10
Instructions
18. In the Design of Experiments
tab, set the lower and upper
bound for the input
parameter DS_Radius to be
0.05 and 1.2 inches,
respectively.

Assume this range represents the

smallest fillet manufacturable
fillet an the largest fillet that will
fit the geometry.

Our design of experiments will

then select values for the radius
within this range.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-11
Instructions
19. Click on the Preview button at upper left. This will show you the DOE points that
will be run. You can see them in the upper right corner of the window. You
should see that the DOE points are within the range you specified in step 18.

20. Click the Update button at the upper left of the window. This will cause all design
points to be solved in the background. Expect this to take a few minutes. When
it’s done, take a look at the newly calculated Max Principal Stress and Mass values
that have now populated the DOE table.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-12
Instructions
21. Go back to the Workbench Project tab and double click on the Response Surface
cell.

22. In the Response Surface tab, click the Update button to calculate the response
surface

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-13
Instructions
23. Click on the Response cell and plot Max Principal Stress vs. Fillet Radius

Note: since we only have one input

parameter, our response ‘surface’ is
2D, meaning it’s a 2D plot

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Instructions
24. Repeat, but this time plot Mass vs. Fillet Radius

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Instructions
25. Go back to the Workbench Project tab. This time drag and drop a Response
Surface Optimization onto the existing Response Surface cell

26. Double click on the Optimization cell to open up a new Optimization tab. Click on
Objectives and Constraints, and at right setup Minimize Max Principal Stress and
also Minimize Mass with an upper bound of 5.96 lbm. Run the optimization via
the Update button.

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Instructions
27. View the three Candidate Points. Observe the relative benefits and drawbacks of
each.

28. Look at Trade Off plots for both Max Principal Stress vs. Fillet Radius (Y axis) and
Mass vs. Fillet Radius (X axis).

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-17
Instructions
29. Let’s assume you select the candidate point with the medium stress value
(should also have the middle mass value). This is probably Candidate 2. Right
click on this candidate’s row and select Verify by Design Point Update. This will
cause ANSYS Workbench to send the input parameter (fillet radius) to
DesignModeler, update the geometry with this value, pass the new geometry to
Mechanical, re-solve, and report back the new results:

This shows that the ‘verified’ stress is 10.69% lower than that predicted
by the response surface optimization. Most likely a finer mesh is needed
as a first step toward improving this result, but we’ll accept it for now.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-18
Instructions
30. Ideally we would perform a mesh refinement study and perhaps other checks,
but in the interest of time and limited disk space available we will accept this
value as our optimized radius. Most likely we would round this value from
0.44503 to 0.445 in. We will actually have you use a slightly different value of the
fillet radius for the second part of the final project.

31. At this point we consider this preliminary design step complete. For your final
project submission, please include:

A. Response surface plot from step 23.

B. Response surface plot from step 24.

C. Screen capture showing the 3 candidate points from step 27.

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2015 MAE546 Optimization Opt-19