Aerostructure designers and manufacturers today face intense shortening on the product design lifecycle. The EADS Sogerma challenge, that is a common aeronautic industry concern, is to speed design as maximising the strength vs. weight ratio of its structures, taking also into account production constraints.

Within the framework of the A400M Ramp Door development, EADS Sogerma has decided to call for optimisation tools to optimize the ramp design. Two complex mechanical parts of the ramp door structure that are the “ramp door locking hooks” and the “X-Load transfer fitting” will be then highlighted in our presentation :

A first topologic optimization on a pre-designed “ramp door locking hook” has been performed considering two key drivers; material change and weight saving.

A second one was conducted on the “X-Load transfer fitting” to recover safety margins without weight increase.

For both cases, the obtained results are in keeping with expected improvements.