Generative Design and Topology Optimization of Disk Brake Floating Carrier

In the last past years, computer-aided technologies to improve existing products by widening the design space have been largely investigated. Topology optimization and generative design are two of the most representative technologies of such kind. This paper aims at investigating the use of generative design and topology optimization techniques to improve products whose design has not changed radically over the years. The product under investigation is a disk brake floating caliper that is the most common solution for commercial vehicles. In general, increasing the stiffness of the floating caliper while keeping its weight under control is desirable both from performance and fuel consumption point of view. The solution here proposed aims at exploiting two new ways to approach the engineering design process and evaluate which one is more suitable for problems of this kind. Starting from the original carrier shape, acquired with laser scanning, the two technologies have been applied on the same initial conditions. The initial design space volume corresponds to the acquired shape, the loads and the constraints for the simulation have been drawn reasonably to resemble the actual operating conditions. Keeping the input parameters constants, two different off-the-shelf software packages have been used to perform the computation and with the objective of maximizing the stiffness of the carrier while reducing its mass. The comparison and the improvements on the final designs have been drawn taken as reference to the original caliper.