Development of an efficient design optimization strategy for thick-walled cylinders treated with combinations of autofrettage, shrink-fit and wire-winding processes

Abstract

Shrink-fit, wire-winding, and autofrettage processes are commonly utilized to enhance fatigue strength and durability of thick-walled cylinders across various mechanical applications. In this study, a novel practical design optimization methodology has been developed to determine the optimal configuration of a thick-walled cylinder, incorporating different combinations of shrink-fit, wire-winding, and autofrettage techniques. The objective is to identify the optimal layer thickness, shrink-fit interference, conventional autofrettage pressure, and reverse autofrettage pressure, if applicable, to maximize the compressive residual stress and minimize the tensile residual stress, thereby extending fatigue lifetime of the cylinder. First, different configurations of thick-walled cylinders, subjected to various combinations of reinforcement processes, are identified. A dataset of residual hoop stress profiles through the cylinder thickness is subsequently generated for these configurations based on the same manufacturing process. Neural network regression is effectively utilized to construct a single fitting function for the residual hoop stress profiles. A parametric study is performed to determine the optimal training functions, activation functions, and hyperparameters, achieving a remarkable agreement with the dataset, indicated by a coefficient of determination of over 0.97. A combination of Genetic Algorithm and Sequential Quadratic Programming algorithms is utilized to determine the accurate optimal values. Fatigue life analysis is subsequently conducted to estimate the fatigue lifetime of the optimal configuration. Results suggest that the optimal configuration, involving conventional autofrettage of the inner layer followed by shrink-fitting with a virgin layer and wire-winding the entire assembly, achieves a maximum fatigue life of 88 × 10⁶ cycles under cyclic pressure load of 300 MPa.