Structural Design Optimization for CFRP in a Personal Aerial Vehicle

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2021-3067.vid Increased urban expansion in recent years has uncovered an inefficiency in mid-range travel distances between 80km and 800km. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aims to address this gap using hybrid and full-electric Personal Air Vehicles (PAVs) as a source of accessible, on-demand transportation. To achieve success with PAVs, reduction of mass is imperative due to the current battery capacity constraints. This can be achieved using advanced materials such as Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) paired with advanced design tools such as topology and composite optimization. Presently, existing literature in UAM design is focused on conceptual design optimization with high-level structural considerations for only conventional materials, which leaves significant weight savings unrealized. This work addresses this knowledge gap by presenting a structural optimization methodology for CFRP based UAM design applied to a PAV concept created in collaboration with Queen’s University, Konkuk University, and KCTECH. A comparison between a CFRP and a conventional aluminum design shows a mass reduction of 54.1% using CFRP construction while meeting the same design requirements.