Two-stage optimal design of metro underframe structures

The design of the metro body structure must balance both safety and cost indicators. The underframe is not only the main load-bearing component of the metro body but also accounts a significant portion of its overall mass. To reduce operational costs and enhance the safety performance of the metro body, this paper focuses on optimizing the design of the underframe. A two-stage optimization approach was proposed, addressing the limitation of existing methods and the challenges in balancing realistic operating conditions with manufacturability. First, manufacturing constraints were incorporated using the variable density method, and topology optimization of the underframe sub-model was carried out with the objective of minimizing flexibility-weighted strain energy. Next, the rough topology was refined through parametric optimization after determining the approximate shape of the cross section, resulting in a more precise model. The results show that the proposed optimization method reduces underframe mass by about 4.7 % while lowering the maximum deflection of the metro car body under the maximum vertical load case by 0.601 mm. This demonstrates that the proposed framework efficiently combines optimization capabilities with simplicity.