Variable Lattice Density Housing for Rotary Machines
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional housings for rotary machines, such as cabin air compressors in aircraft, face challenges with stress distribution, deflection, and energy containment, leading to inefficiencies and increased failure rates due to their solid cross-sections and manufacturing processes.
Innovation Solution
A housing with a variable lattice structure that includes regions of varying density, optimized through additive manufacturing, to reduce stress and strain in high-stress areas, increase stiffness in deflection regions, and enhance energy absorption capacity, thereby improving mechanical properties and reducing failure rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a solid cross-section housing is used, then strength and stiffness are maintained, but weight increases and stress distribution becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies porous lattice structures within the housing to replace solid material. These lattice structures provide sufficient strength and stiffness while significantly reducing weight. The porous configuration allows stress to distribute more efficiently through the structure, maintaining structural integrity without the mass penalty of solid cross-sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements variable lattice densities throughout the housing structure, with denser lattices in high-stress regions and sparser lattices in low-stress regions. This local quality approach optimizes strength where needed while minimizing weight in non-critical areas, resolving the contradiction between overall strength and weight reduction.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a solid cross-section housing is used, then structural integrity is maintained, but stress distribution becomes concentrated leading to higher failure rates
Solution Approach 1:
The lattice structures act as porous materials that naturally distribute stress more evenly throughout the housing. Instead of stress concentrating at specific points in solid sections, the lattice configuration disperses loads across multiple struts and nodes, reducing peak stress concentrations and improving overall structural stability.
Solution Approach 2:
By varying lattice density locally based on stress analysis, the patent ensures that high-stress regions receive enhanced structural support through denser lattices, while low-stress regions use sparser configurations. This targeted approach maintains structural integrity throughout while preventing stress concentration in critical areas.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional manufacturing processes are used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but manufacturing precision and ability to create variable density structures is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes additive manufacturing technology which allows precise control of material deposition parameters to create variable lattice densities. The manufacturing process can dynamically adjust lattice spacing and strut thickness during fabrication, achieving complex variable density structures with high precision that would be impossible with traditional manufacturing methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical manufacturing processes (such as casting, machining, or welding) with additive manufacturing. This substitution enables the creation of complex variable density lattice structures through digital modeling and layer-by-layer material deposition, achieving manufacturing precision and geometric complexity that traditional methods cannot provide.
Data Source
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AI summary
A housing (20) for a rotary machine includes a support sleeve (118) extending along a central axis of the rotary machine, a volute portion (124) defining a duct (34) in the housing, and a variable lattice structure (142) in an interior of the housing. The variable lattice structure includes a first region (150) of the housing having a first lattice structure and a second region (152) of the housing having a second lattice structure. The second lattice structure of the second region is denser than the first lattice structure of the first region. The second region is a deflection region, a stress region, or an energy containment region of the housing.