IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRATED DFMA AND CAE IN DESIGN OF ACTUATOR HOUSING AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

Abstract

Actuator housing is a critical aerospace component in rocket motor assembly, which houses the servo actuator, control fins and thrust vector controller. It has to satisfy number of critical parameters including Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) for easy manufacturing and smooth assembly, required strength against various loads acting on it during the flight trajectory, transportation and launching. Actuator housing is designed and developed with integrated Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) principles and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) techniques to improve the design features for ease of manufacturing and assembly. In this approach, the functional requirement of the manufacturer and the assembler are discussed with the designer and implemented at the preliminary design stage only. These enables the product outcome in lesser time with reduced cost by minimizing the manufacturing and assembly defects. CAE is carried on Actuator housing at various loads and boundary conditions in three loading cases satisfying factor of safety and mass, topology & strength optimizations. The experimental validation is carried on a prototype of the actuator housing with three loading condition cases (Transportation load, pitch, and yaw forces). The results of actuator housing against all the load cases are reiterated and optimized, these are within the material strengths factor of safety. It results improved the materials structural stability, strength and quality of the product satisfying all the flight trajectory conditions and missile direction configurations. These enables the mass production of the product with reduced cost, time and reaching the market in less time.