A graph-based pipe routing algorithm in aero-engine rotational space

Appropriately routing pipes poses a considerable challenge to complex product developments such as aero-engine engineering. This paper presents a graph-based routing algorithm that tries to find the shortest collision-free pipe paths in an aero-engine’s circumferential space between the hub and the casing. The routing algorithm extends the visibility graph originally used for robot path planning in 2D spaces to aero-engine’s 3D circumferential spaces by incorporating geodesics and a number of engineering rules. Subsequently, this paper presents two adaptive strategies to automatically determine the circumferential layers and regions, on which pipes are to be routed. Pipe configurations with shortest total lengths are further found by using a graph searching algorithm. Finally, numerical computations have shown that the proposed routing algorithm outperforms previous algorithms in terms of pipe lengths and computation efficiency.