Electronic Journal of Polish Agricultural Universities (EJPAU) founded by all Polish Agriculture Universities presents original papers and review articles relevant to all aspects of agricultural sciences. It is target for persons working both in science and industry,regulatory agencies or teaching in agricultural sector. Covered by IFIS Publishing (Food Science and Technology Abstracts), ELSEVIER Science - Food Science and Technology Program, CAS USA (Chemical Abstracts), CABI Publishing UK and ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publisher - full membership). Presented in the Master List of Thomson ISI.
2009
Volume 12
Issue 4
Topic:
Wood Technology
ELECTRONIC
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES
Smardzewski J. , Prekrat S. 2009. OPTIMISATION OF A SOFA FRAME IN THE INTEGRATED CAD-CAE ENVIRONMENT, EJPAU 12(4), #01.
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume12/issue4/abs-01.html

OPTIMISATION OF A SOFA FRAME IN THE INTEGRATED CAD-CAE ENVIRONMENT

Jerzy Smardzewski1, Silvana Prekrat2
1 Department of Furniture Design, Faculty of Wood Technology, Poznañ University of Life Sciences, Poland
2 Forestry Faculty, University of Zagreb, Croatia

 

ABSTRACT


Majority of manufacturers of upholstered furniture design construction frames on the basis of craftsman's intuition and imitation rather than on the basis of engineer practice. The objective of this study was to present a method for the dimension sub-optimisation of cross-section diameters of a sofa frame construction and to demonstrate the need for virtual prototyping of upholstered furniture in an integrated computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided engineering (CAE) environments. The concept of the performed investigations assumed the need to select sub-optimal dimensions of cross sections and thicknesses of the construction constituent elements of a two-person sofa frame on the basis of numerical calculations of developed solid models. However, undertaking appropriate steps towards the planned construction sub-optimisation required carrying out strength tests in order to verify the suitability of models developed in the environment of the finite element method. Corroboration of the satisfactory quality of the results of these calculations allowed proposing cross sections of reduced dimensions and next to manufacture an experimental construction of sufficient rigidity and strength in industrial applications.
It was demonstrated on the basis of the performed experiments that the proposed dimensions of the main construction elements put forward following the performed sub-optimisation decreased beech wood consumption by 36% and that of particle board – by 25%. Reduced dimensions of the most important construction elements did not result in a significant decrease of the stiffness and strength of the sofa frame.

Key words: furniture, optimisation, numerical analysis, CAD, CAE.

Jerzy Smardzewski
Department of Furniture Design, Faculty of Wood Technology, Poznañ University of Life Sciences, Poland
Wojska Polskiego 38/42, 60-637 Poznañ, Poland
Phone: +48 61 848 7475
Fax: +48 61 848 7474
email: jsmardzewski@up.poznan.pl

Silvana Prekrat
Forestry Faculty, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Sveto¹imunska 25, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
email: silvana.prekrat@zg.htnet.hr

Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.

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