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Design Optimisation and Analysis of a Quadrotor Arm Using Finite Element

Method

Article  in  Applied Mechanics and Materials · August 2014

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.664.371

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Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 664 (2014) pp 371-375 Submitted: 27.08.2014
© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Accepted: 27.08.2014
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.664.371

Design Optimisation and Analysis of a Quadrotor Arm using Finite

Element Method
Vishank Bhatia1, a, R.Karthikeyan 2, b, R.K.Ganesh Ram3,c
and Yashaan Nari Cooper4,d
1, 2,3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS Pilani Dubai Campus, UAE
4
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, BITS Pilani Dubai Campus, UAE
a
vishank94@gmail.com, brkarthikeyan@dubai.bits-pilani.ac.in, cganeshrk95@gmail.com,
d
yashaancooper@gmail.com

Keywords:Quad rotor,ANSYS, Finite Element Analysis, Response Surface Method, Goal Driven
Design Optimization, Explicit Dynamics.

Abstract:The structural analysis of quad rotor frame is important since it has to withstand the forces
due to aerodynamics and gravitational force due to the mounted weights. Design optimization based
on finite element analysis provides an efficient methodology to meet the desired objectives related to
structural elements. In the present study, design optimization based on response surface methodology
has been used to optimize the shape of the arm used in the quad rotor. The objectives considered for
the study include minimization of Von Mises stress and total deformation. The goal driven
optimization used in ANSYS WORKBENCH has been employed for the study and arm has been
redesigned to meet the set goals.

Introduction
Quad rotors are symmetrical vehicles with four equally sized rotors at the end of four equal length
rods. They are the unmanned air vehicles mainly used for defense purposes. Apart from defense, they
find applications in aerial photography, crop dusting, disaster response, Accident investigation and
door-door delivery of goods. One such example is - Amazon Prime Air, a concept service that
delivers packages to customers via autonomous drones within 30 minutes.The average payload on the
quadrotor is about 2 kilograms. Design of air foils and structural elements and control of the altitude,
yaw, pitch and roll are the few areas of research which has gained a lot of interest recently in this field.
This paper deals with the structural analysis of an arm of such a payload carrying quadrotor using
finite element analysis and consequent Goal Driven Optimisation.
Finite Element Analysis simplifies the problem to a fixed number of unknowns by dividing the
domain into elements and by expressing each unknown field variable in terms of the assumed
approximating functions within each element. These functions are known as interpolation functions
and are defined in terms of the values of the field variables at specific points, referred to as nodes.
Nodes connect adjacent elements and are usually found along the element boundaries [1]. The design
optimization method based on finite element analysis is employed to optimize the dimensions of
structural elements with a set of objectives and constraints. Design optimization has been used in
many applications such as foot valves [2] and in-cylinder intake ports [3]. Similar Reliability-based
design optimization has been put to use for an aircraft to minimize weight for a given level of
safety[4].
To study the effect of influence of the design variables on the characteristics Response Surface
Method (RSM) is widely used. It is one of the Design of Experiments (DOE) methods used to study
the unknown relation between a set of variables and the system output, or response. These relations
are then modelled using a mathematical model, called Response surface. Optimisation based on
response surface is referred as experimental optimisation [5]. The objective of employing RSM is to
investigate the changes in output parameters with variations in input parameters.

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372 Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering I

Although literature is available related to structural analysis of quad rotor frames [6], design
optimization has not been studied in detail. In this context, the present study will focus on the
following objectives.
1. Design of quad rotor frame and application of structural and aerodynamic loads
2. Optimization of design using goal driven optimization
3. Study on the influence of design variables on the characteristics using RSM and validation using
drop test

Structural Analysis
The modelling of Quad rotor arm is done using ANSYS Design Modeler. The arm is composed of
High Tensile Carbon Fibre with Tensile Yield Strength of 3200 MPa and Youngs modulus of 230
GPa. Considering the symmetry of quad rotor, structural analysis is performed on one of the arms
using Static Structural module. Appropriate loading and support conditions are applied on the CAD
geometry in the Mechanical module. The mesh generated over the CAD model is made up of 10050
nodes and 5153 elements. The fixed supports are applied over the 6 screw holes (4 on the top and 2 on
the bottom) on the arm which will be fixed to the power distribution board and the controller
platform, which is done by selecting the surface required to be fixed. The force distribution on the
arm is shown in Table 1. The Lift Force exerted by the propeller on the arm can be calculated as:
, , (1)

Table 1. Force Distribution on the arm

Fig 1.Equivalent (Von-Mises) Stress and Total Deformation

The static structural analysis was performed on the model and results were recorded [Fig 1.]. The
Equivalent (Von-Mises) Stress is maximum at the support and it is reduced towards the free end. Its
value varies from 1.112 * 10-3 MPa to 17.112 MPa.while the Total Deformation varied from 0 mm to
0.26282 mm and is maximum at the free end of the arm since it acts like a cantilever with fixed
supports at the other end. The Von-Mises Strain varied from 1.0042 * 10-8 to 7.6736 * 10-5 mm/mm.
The Tensile Yield Strength of HT Carbon Fibre is 3200 MPa. The Maximum Equivalent Stress
(Von-Mises) obtained is 17.112 MPa. Hence, the Maximum Equivalent Stress (Von-Mises) obtained
is within the limits and the structure is safe. However, the factor of safety should be as high as
possible and structure should be safe when it crashes accidentally on to a target or ground. Hence
design optimization is performed to modify the original design.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 664 373

Response Surface Modeling using Design Explorer

A Response Surface is built using the solutions i.e. design points obtained corresponding to the input
parameters defined in ANSYS DesignModeler. This is done by using Design of Experiments (DOE)
method that decides the number of design points and which design points should be solved. Instead of
discrete values for output parameters, the Response Surface provides a continuous variation of the
output quantities with respect to the input parameters. The response surface is essentially created by
using curve fit through the Design Points. The RSM first employs an experimental strategy to
generate design points in the design space, then applies either the first-order model or the
second-order model to approximate the unknown system. The second order model used for the study
has the form:

are design variables

and y is the response.

Design of Experiments (DOE) Method. The Design of Experiments (DOE) method decides the
number of input values and for what input values the analysis shall be run, so essentially this step
determines how many analysis will be executed. Every combination that ANSYS solves for is
known as a Design Point. Parameter Set is defined for the arm that holds the Design Modeler
parameters-landing support angle, arm thickness, support arm height. The characteristics studied
include the Von Mises Stress and Total Deformation. The Response Surface can be investigated using
Surface Plots, Sensitivities, Optimisation and Trade-Off Plots.
Response surface plots. It represents the fluctuation of one output parameter with variation in two
input parameters.

Fig 2.Three-Dimensional Response Surface

While, the Total Deformation and the Equivalent (Von-Mises) Stress Maximum increase
exponentially with increase in arm thickness,they are minimally affected by the variation in landing
support angle [Fig. 2].
Sensitivity Analysis. It scans the design space and measures the sensitivity of input parameters as a
pre-investigation of an optimisation procedure. Local Sensitivity Charts depict the weight of each
parameter around the response point. From the results obtained in the current study, it can be
observed that arm thickness is more pronounced when compared to the landing support angle and
support arm height for all the characteristics [Fig. 3].
374 Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering I

Design Optimization. It is a set of constrained, multi-objective optimization techniques which

identifies the "best" possible designs that are obtained from a sample collection of feasible
pointsdepending upon the goals we set for the parameters.It allows us to determine the influence on
input parameters with certain objectives applied for the output parameters.

Fig 3 Local Sensitivity Fig 4 Trade-Off Plot

This is done by specifying a series of design goals or objectives that will be used to generate an
optimized design. Optimization domain, values for input and response parameters, and weighed goals
in terms of their importance were specified. Based on the specifications, Design Explorer generates a
set of sample designs from which the most promising candidate designs can be selected.
A formulation of goal driven optimisation for the current study is as follows:
Minimize: Total Deformation and Maximum Equivalent Stress (Von-Mises)
Subject to: Geometry Mass < 0.080 kg
58.97° <landing support angle< 72.07°
2.25 mm <arm thickness< 2.75 mm
27 mm <support arm height< 33mm
The optimisation method selected in this paper is “Screening” with 1000 sample points.
Trade-Off Plots. It is a representation of a sample collection of feasible as well as ‘less’ feasible
points used for the goal driven optimisation. It can be a 3D or a 2D plot of input or output parameters
versus other parameters.The colours indicate how close (blue)/how far (red) the configurations are
with respect to the required design goals. All the green coloured points are feasible points [Fig.4].
Once the Response Surface is generated, Design of Experiments method will choose the most suitable
candidates out of the sample of 1000 random points such that they best fulfil the goal. The results
obtained at the end of optimization procedure are compared with the results of the initial design in
Table 2.
Table 2. Summary of Goal- Driven Optimisation

17.112
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 664 375

Validaiton using Explicit Dynamics

The final optimised design was subjected to drop-test against a concrete floor using Explicit
Dynamics procedure.The initial velocity is set to 10 m/s in –Z direction and the structure is also
subjected to gravity. The Equivalent (Von-Mises) Stress is 311 MPa, much lesser than the Tensile
Yield Stength of HT Carbon Fibre which is 3200 MPa. Hence, the optimised design is crash safe.

Fig 5 Drop Test- Equivalent (Von-Mises) Stress

Conclusion
Design optimization of quad rotor arm was performed to modify the initial design. Minimization of
Von Mises stress and total deformation were considered as objectives for optimization. The Total
Deformation is reduced from 0.262 mm to 0.198grams i.e. reduction by 24.4 % and the Von-Mises
Stress is decreased from 17.112 MPa to 13.705 MPa i.e. by almost 20% in the final design. The
response surface analysis has shown that the influence of arm thickness is more significant when
compared to landing support angle and support arm height. The final design is obtained by optimizing
the design variables considered for the study and it is found to be safer than the original design and the
validated using drop-test.
Acknowledgement.
The authors are grateful to the authorities of BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus for the support and
encouragement.

References
[1] Erdogan Madenci, Ibrahim Guve, The Finite Element Method and Applications in Engineering
using ANSYS®, 16th Edition, Springer US, ISBN 978-0-387-28290-9, (2006).
[2] Emre SİPAHİ, “Ansys Design Optimization Of Foot Valve”, Thesis Report,İZMİR, (July 2004).
[3] Padmesh Mandloi, GunjanVerma, “Design Optimization of an In-Cylinder Engine Intake Port”,
NAFEMS World Congress 2009, Crete, Greece June 16-19, (2009).
[4] Erdem Acar, Raphael T.Haftka, “ Reliability Based Aircraft Structural Design Optimization with
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Multidisciplinary Optimization, May 30- June 03, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (2005).
[5] G. Gary Wang, Zuomin Dong, Peter Aitchison, “Adaptive Response Surface Method -- A Global
Optimization Scheme for Computation-intensive Design Problems”, Journal of Engineering
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[6] GopichandAllaka, B.D.P.P.S.L.Anasuya, Ch.Yamini, N.N.Vaidehi, Y.VenkataRamana,
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