Generative Design Help - Quadcopter Drone Frame
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Hello,
I've designed a simple quadcopter design where I want to use generative design to minimize the mass of the frame. The issues is, I can't seem to achieve it, I either get results where the mass increased instead or going down or it simply stayed the same (original design has 101.067 g, and it doesn't go down, it can get up to 109 g or minimum 99 g). I've seen many videos and papers where people seem to have great results, but I simply can't. I have tried everything, different constraints locations and even a starting shape to see if that helped. Also, I don't know if this might be a cause for this situation, but I also calculated my own loads based on real weight components. In summary, I have three preserved regions, a top plate, a bottom plate, and four motor mounts.
Forces:
- Top Plate force acting downwards: 2.5 N (Where the battery usually goes)
- Bottom Plate force acting downards: 1 N (components)
- Motor Mounts thrust force acting upwards: 2.373 N
- Motor Mounts torque force based on motor configuration where you have CW and CCW torque: 0.166 N*m.
- I also created a second load case to simulate crash forces that I placed on the motor mounts and front faces of the plates, but ofc this didn't gave good results either.
Maybe I should apply other forces or I'm not taking into consideration certain forces? or maybe I should assume forces instead of real calculations?
Desing criteria has to met the following:
- Minimize mass
- Safety Factor: 2.00
Manufacturing:
- Unrestricted
- Additive: 45 degrees overhang (change if needed), minimum thickness: (I've tried a lot, but minimum 1 mm only, I tried most iterations between 1.5-2.5 mm)
- Orientation: Z+ (I don't know if this affects something).
Material:
- I was trying to use PA 12 - Nylon - PA 603-CF (with EOS P 3D printers), but at this point I don't know if this is the issue, I've tried other materials but same result, I really would like to use this material but if not, suggestions are appreciated (based on real-world)
Now, I tried to do everything as realistic as possible, I don't know if maybe the forces are too low, maybe I'm placing them incorrectly as well as the constraints. I've been on this for a week and no luck. I tried placing constraints on the bottom face of the bottom plate to fixed constraint that part only, also to the motor holes, etc etc. Everything you can think of. Maybe the design overall is wrong from the start, I honestly have no idea why I get the results I'm getting.
Most results I see on videos or papers are like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_96WSokE2Sc&ab_channel=Formlabs
(credits to the author)
I'm attaching the file so if anyone has any idea what might be wrong or any suggestions it would be awesome, everything is appreciated.
Sorry if in the "Edit Model" you see a lot of stuff I've tried a lot of things as well as different obstacle geometries. So, I will attach my current generative design file, and the original design without going into generative design just in case.
Thank you.