Fig.1 A vehicle-borne weapon launcher[2]

Fig.2 Traditional structural design process for weapons

Fig.3 Original design of the launching cradle

Fig.4 Cross-section of the profiled steel tubes in accordance with GB/T 3094—2012

Fig.5 Finite element (FE) model of the original design of the launching cradle under the missile-carrying condition (a) (The asterisks “*” indicates the equivalent mass points of the borne missiles and the same would apply hereinafter)

Fig.6 Displacement boundary conditions of the FE model for the launching cradle

Fig.7 Comparison of structural deformations of the original launching cradle under different overloading and missile-carrying conditions

Fig.8 FE model for topology optimization of the launching cradle (The regions in yellow are designable while those in green are not)

Fig.9 Optimized topological configuration without manufacturing constraints

Fig.10 Optimized topological configuration with extrusion constraints

Fig.11 Optimized topological configuration with extrusion constraints (minimum member size constraint at 30mm and maximum at 120mm)

Fig.12 Optimized topological configuration with extrusion constraints (minimum member size constraint at 40mm and maximum at 120mm)

Fig.13 Optimized topological configuration with extrusion constraints (minimum member size constraint at 60mm and maximum at 120mm)

Fig.14 Iterative curves of weighted compliance and volume fraction in topology optimization processes. The numbers in the parentheses indicate the values of the minimum and maximum member size constraints, respectively

Fig.15 Reconstructed model of the launching cradle based on the topology optimization results

Fig.16 FE model of the optimized design for verification

Fig.17 Comparison of structural deformations of the optimized launching cradle under different overloading and missile-carrying conditions