Hello everybody! I'd like to share a model that I made to assist a friend with making an isogrid on a cylindrical surface.

What is an isogrid?

It's a type of structural grid that adds strenght without contributing too much to the weight. It was first patented by McDonell Douglas (used to be one of the largest aircraft manufacturers, and is now owned by Boeing). It gets its name from the fact that it has isotropic strength properties, meaning that it can hold load equally regardless of the angle that this load is applied.

Apps used: 

CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE was used to create this.

Generative Shape Design  was used for some basic surface creation.

Part Design was used to create all the solid geometry

Live Rendering was used to produce the visuals.

How was this made?

A sketch with the pattern was made. After this, the sketch is projected into the surface and projected back into the plane. I think this helps compensate for the "warping" that you might get when just doing a pad, as the shape wouldn't be exactly a triangle ('m not entirely sure of what the proper way to do this is though, so any feedback is much appreciated!).

The sketch was then padded with one arbitrary limit and another limit up to the surface that the grid will be on. Then, an offset surface is used for a split. Finally, a rectangular pattern on the z direction is made to get it up, which is followed by a circular pattern.

This was made to help out some of my teammates at Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering. This grid will be used in our flagship , reusable rocket, Stratos V, which will go up to 60km with a liquid, regeneratively cooled and 3D printed engine.

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this post. Please feel free to ping me in direct messages or in the comments if you have any questions or feedback. Have a great day!
Edu ​​​​​​​