Structural Design for a Jaw Using Metamodels

Rail clamps are mechanical components installed to fix the container crane to its bottoms from wind blast or slip. Rail clamps should be designed to survive the harsh wind loading condition. In this study, the jaw structure that is one part of wedge-typed rail clamp is optimized, considering strength under the severe wind loading condition. According to the classification of structural optimization, the structural optimization of a jaw belongs to shape optimization. In the conventional structural optimization methods, they have difficulties in defining complex shape design variables and preventing mesh distortions. To overcome the difficulties, the metamodel using kriging interpolation method is introduced, replacing true response by approximate one. This research presents the shape optimization of a jaw using iterative kriging interpolation models and simulated annealing algorithm. The new kriging models are iteratively constructed by refining the former kriging models. This process is continued until the convergence criteria are satisfied. The optimum results obtained by the suggested method are compared with those obtained by the DOE (design of experiments) and VT (variation technology) methods built in ANSYS WORKBENCH.