Take the wing model shown below. For simplicity's sake, the upper skin is sized as a metal plate. A range of possible thicknesses is given in the assigned Design Property (i.e. the design space).
Running a preliminary Sizing on the entire upper skin, HyperX will find the thinnest plate that satisfies all strength and stability criteria and apply that to the entire skin. This design, "Design #1", is the most producible design possible since there is no thickness variation across the part surface. However, it is typical aerospace practice to allow particular design variables - in this case, thickness - of each panel vary across the part surface. In this instance, HyperX will find the thinnest plate that satisfy the loads and criteria for each panel, rather than assigning the controlling thickness to the entire part. This is the weight optimum design, but comes with increased variation in thickness across the part surface (and therefore a decreased level of producibility as compared to "Design #1"). This is "Design #2".
For each design, which are both considered viable options for this part, a variation score (based on the amount of change in thickness across adjacent panels on the part surface) and corresponding weight are calculated. These are the bookends of the problem. But, based on the number of cross-sectional candidates defined on the Design Property, there are potentially 1000s more viable part designs.
Running a full factorial design of experiments (DOE) of all possible thickness combinations across the part surface, HyperX systematically identifies all positive margin wing skin designs, calculates the corresponding weight and variation, and plots them accordingly. Notice that the high weight, low variation (i.e. high producibility) designs trend towards the upper lefthand side of the plot; while the low weight, high variation (i.e. low producibility) designs trend toward the bottom right.
-
HyperXpert operates on and reports results for a selection of Zones (i.e. a part surface), rather than each individual Zone.
-
Cross-sectional dimensions of consecutive Zones in a part are compared to understand the change in design (i.e. variation) along the part surface.
-
Part variation is a measure of producibility. The more variation in a design, the harder a part is to produce.
-
Variation trends to look for when studying HyperXpert DOE plots:
-
High design variation corresponds to low weight solutions (bottom right).
-
Low variation corresponds to high weight solutions (top left).
Tip
In other words, parts that are easiest to manufacture are heavier than dimensionally-optimized parts that inherently add manufacturing complexity.
-