Lightweight, high stiffness and high strength structures are the key elements to achieving high speed, long range and strong aircraft manoeuvrability. In recent years, fundamental research and design technology development on innovative design methods, such as structural topology optimization and bionic design, have provided powerful design tools for the design of high-speed aircraft structures. This paper first analyzes the design requirements of high-speed aircraft structures. Then reviews the related research on the integration method of structural topology optimization, bionic design and additive manufacturing at domestic and abroad in recent years from the perspectives of research methods and classification applications. Finally summarizes the main problems in the innovative design methods and applications of aircraft structures, and proposes the key breakthrough technologies in the near future, thus providing a reference for the structural design of the new generation high-speed aircraft.

Hydrophobic, anti-icing, anti-corrosion, drag reduction and wave absorption functional surfaces have generated significant interest among researchers to enhance the overall performance of aircraft. Due to its wide range of applications and high precision in processing, laser processing technology has great application potential in material processing, complex morphology construction, micro-nano scale manufacturing and other areas. This paper has comprehensively summarized the research of functional bionic surfaces prepared on different materials in recent years, including hydrophobic, anti-icing, comprehensive anti-corrosion, antibacterial, drag reduction and wave absorption functional surfaces. From the perspective of bionic manufacturing, this paper has presented the biological surface with unique functional characteristics in nature, introduced the underlying basis of achieving a particular function, and listed relevant research on bionic surface manufacturing based on laser processing. Finally, the challenges and trends of development were discussed and prospected.

Using a mass-spring equivalent model, the structural optimization problem of a large flexible solar array wing was studied in this paper. A method called “Design of Experiment” was used to build a numerical surrogate model of a solar array wing. The sensitivity and the main effect of the first frequency on key parameters were analyzed. According to the numerical surrogate model of the solar array wing, both MIGA global optimization algorithm and the NLPQL gradient algorithm can increase the first frequencies under the restrained condition of reducing overall mass. The result shows that this method can optimize the structure design and contribute to determine the structure scheme effectively, which has paid an important part on successful development of the solar array of China Space Station.

With the development of AM (additive manufacturing) technology, the integration of innovative structure design and AM technology must be the critical direction of breakthrough development in missile development and structural design. This paper discussed the application of advanced additive manufacturing technology in missile structure optimization in three parts: the static design, the dynamic structure design and the coupling dynamics. Since the optimization of missile structure involves dynamic characteristics, aeroelasticity, mechanical-thermal coupling etc., relying on its unique advantages, AM technology can break through the traditional design mode and the processing bottleneck, and can further realize the lightweight, small size and functional integration of space weapon equipment.

Morphing aircraft can achieve better performance by changing the aerodynamic shape in different flying tasks or various tasks of the same task stage. Telescopic wings are one of the important deformation schemes for aircraft. In order to improving design accuracy and development efficiency, the co-simulation approach has been paid great attention recently. The co-simulation method can verify the influence of parameters on the performance of Telescopic wings during the design phase.Using ADAMS and Simulink,a comprehensive analysis and simulation mechatronic model had been established to study the kinematic and the dynamic characteristics. To meet the standards of real-time deployment of the deformation mechanism, the main parameters of the deformation wing mechanism were simulated and ameliorated. The simulation experimenthas verified the feasibility of the proposed method and provide a foundation for structural optimization design.

There has a significant impact when the separation bolt is unlocked, therefore to avoid damage to the aircraft structure, the impact energy needs to be absorbed. A cushioning energy absorption device was designed in a limited installation applying the energy absorption principle of the thin-walled cylinder. The cushioning property of thin-walled cylinders with different thicknesses and different impact velocities were analyzed using the finite element method and were verified by the cushion test. The results show that when the aircraft structure is not completely crushed, the thin-walled cylinder performs effectively in cushioning energy absorption, the smaller the wall thickness of the thin-walled cylinder, the better the cushioning effect. The impact velocity has an outstanding correlation with the cushioning property and exhibits a solid nonlinear relationship.

Simulation can guide the quantitative design of accelerated tests under multi-stress conditions, to shorten the test period. This paper has acquired the stress and strain responses of spacecraft steering gear under different load types and amplitudes using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Hereby, the working load limit of the steering gear was determined, and the initial accelerated test profile had been established. According to the stress and strain responses, the fatigue life was calculated and the accelerated factor model of steering gear under multi-stress was established. Based on the above, the initial accelerated test profile was modified when the accelerated ratio was no less than 5, and the final test profile was obtained. The method provides a reference for the multi-stress accelerated test of such spacecraft electromechanical products.

An aircraft rudder is an irregular thin-walled structure with a huge thickness difference between its inner stiffener and skin. To meet its demand for mesh flexibility in analysis, a high-accuracy generic quadrilateral element for the thick and thin flat shell was constructed using coupling membrane element GQ12, which has rotational DOF, and the shear strain mixed interpolated plate element MITC4. Based on this analysis tool, this study has successfully obtained a clear internal optimized stiffener layout via adaptive growth method. Compared with traditional rudder internal frame design, the overall structure stiffness of the optimization result was improved by 33% and the weight was reduced by 29%. The accuracy and practicability of the GQ12+MITC4 coupling element and the effectiveness of the adaptive growth method on rudder stiffener layout topology optimization were verified, thus, providing an innovative and effective method for stiffener layout design of aircraft rudder structure.

The grain, the structure, the flow field and the acoustic field are critical to solid rocket motor (SRM) design, where engineers are urging for a typical SRM with high efficiency and could realize the adjustment of the parameters within limits. Aiming at evaluating the quality characteristics of the SRM roughly and getting the multi-physics fields used for process simulation rapidly under the burning regression, utilising the Creo platform, this paper proposed a standard process for the parametric design of a solid rocket motor and tracking the burning regression, applying the concept of top-down modelling and the method of feature modelling respectively. Additionally, this paper has conducted the secondary development of Creo, the function of modifying parameters, regenerating models and exporting files was encapsulated in programs, avoiding the complexity and misoperation of manual operation.

In this paper, the numerical simulation and control effect of double-vibration test for the slender aerocraft were studied. Using the Mode-superposition method, a dynamic model of the slender aerocraft under multi-input multi-output random vibration tests was proposed in this paper. The pseudo excitation method and inverse pseudo excitation method were adopted to study the influence of the reference point number and the reference spectral density matrix. The numerical simulation of the Multi-Input Multi-Output random vibration tests of a simulator of the slender aerocraft under different reference point numbers and reference spectral density matrices was acquired. Finally, the numerical simulation results were promoted through the pseudo excitation method, and the vibration responses of the various control point combinations were different for the double-vibration system.

To study the supersonic flutter characteristics of the full-scale rudder-installed steering gear, a rudder model aeroelasticity test platform based on the FD-12 wind tunnel was designed by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics. The subcritical flutter test method was used to study the characteristics of the full-scale rudder installed in an actual steering gear. The rudder model was tested in a wind tunnel with a fixed Mach number of 1.5 and continuously raising the dynamic pressure. The flutter boundary was captured by three subcritical flutter boundary prediction methods: the Houbolt-Rainey method, the Peak-Hold method and the Zimmerman-Weissenburger method. The flutter boundaries were predicted using the rudder vibration response data measured by the accelerometers. The flutter dynamic pressure predicted by three subcritical flutter boundary prediction methods were respectively 0.070, 0.072 and 0.073 MPa, which were almost the same.

A virtual thermal test system was produced using the co-simulation of Simulink and Comsol to realize the complete virtualization of the thermal test. The co-simulation technology enabled the comprehensive simulation analysis of the control system, electric field, and thermal field. The data states of every single observation point can be acquired directly, including the output states information both of the power amplifier and the heater and the thermal states information of the test. The virtual thermal test system has a predictive and guiding role for engineering thermal tests and is capable to simulate the thermal environment beyond the actual existing thermal environment, thus providing a basic tool for the future development of models.

To solve the problems of mesh dependence and uncertainty sensitivity in the simulation analysis of the high-frequency vibration test, the FE-SEA (finite element statistical energy method) coupling modelling method of cabin structure and the shaking table was proposed. Taking the typical cabin structure of air defencemissiles as a case study,by analyzing the frequency characteristics, the principle and method of subsystem division of cabin structure weredetermined, and the statistical energy analysis model of cabin structure wasestablished in the VA one. The hybrid model method based on wave coupling wasused to analyze the energy transfer relationship between the finite element model and the statistical energy method model. The FE-SEA coupling analysis model of the cabin structure and the shaking table was established, and the random vibration response of the typical cabin structure wassimulated. The random vibration tests of the typical cabin were conducted, and the simulation results of the RMS value of cabin structure velocity and acceleration in respectivefrequency bandswerein agreement with the actual test data. The results show that the FE-SEA analysis method based on wave coupling theory solves the challenges in high-frequency coupling modelling in random vibration simulation analysis, and the simulation prediction accuracy of the high-frequency vibration test reaches ±3 dB。

The modal characteristics and stability of the slender body which can be subjected to follower thrust were compared and analyzed. It was shown that the axial component of follower thrust which was conservative would weaken the axial stiffness of the slender body. The critical value of dynamic instability of the slender body under the non-conservative transverse component was higher than its value of static buckling. At the critical point, the 1st and 2nd frequencies of the slender body remained the same. This indicates that the stiffness of different modes couples together under follower thrust. Therefore, the transverse component of thrust should be considered for the slender body, especially with obvious bending vibration.

In order to improve the flutter critical dynamic pressure of swept trapezoidal frame-skin rudder with a low aspect ratio, the effect of balanced mass on the rudder mode and flutter critical dynamic pressure were compared at multiple-cavity positions in this paper. In conclusion, the balanced mass added at the intersection of leading edge and root chord can increase the flutter critical dynamic pressure, but the balanced mass added at the intersection of leading edge and tip chord is counterproductive, blindly adding balance mass won’t reduce the risk of rudder flutter. The cavity filled with balanced mass should be determinedat the specific position where the degree of bending and torsion mode shape coupling can be reduced.