Optimization Framework of a Ram Air Inlet Composite Morphing Flap

The ram air inlets flaps are used in some aircraft to modulate the amount of ram<br/>air cooling the Environmental Control System. The current flap design features two metallic plates connected with a hinge. The present work studies an alternative design that replaces the metallic plates with a single composite laminate with morphing...

Design and testing of aeroelastically tailored composite wing under fatigue and gust loading including effect of fatigue on aeroelastic performance

The aim of the paper is to experimentally validate a numerical design methodology for optimizing composite wings subject to gust and fatigue loading requirements and to assess the effect of fatigue on the aeroelastic performance of the wing. Traditionally, to account for fatigue in composite design, a knockdown factor on the maximum stress...

The effects of a full-aircraft aerodynamic model on the design of a tailored composite wing

This paper discusses the effects of the aerodynamic model on the design of a composite wing via aeroelastic tailoring. The classic framework for analysis and optimization of composite wings developed at Delft University of Technology adopts panel method aerodynamics to calculate static and dynamic loads. The current work expands the...

Aeroelastic optimization of composite wings including fatigue loading requirements

An analytical model to predict the fatigue life of a composite laminate is formulated. The model calculates stresses in each ply using classical lamination theory, degrades the residual strength using the linear wear-out law and predicts failure based on Tsai Wu failure theory. The cycles to failure are predicted using the updated cycle-by...

Transonic flight and movable load modelling for wing-box preliminary sizing

In this paper, a methodology is presented to size an aircraft wing-box accounting for steady and dynamic loads combined with active control. Several aerodynamic corrections are used and benchmarked to ensure a consistent level of fidelity during the load analysis. Reduced order models (ROM) of the aircraft movables, gust loads and maneuvers...

Preliminary aeroelastic design of composite wings subjected to critical gust loads

Including a gust analysis in an optimization framework is computationally expensive as the critical load cases are not known a priori and hence a large number of points within the flight envelope have to be analyzed. Model order reduction techniques can provide significant improvement in computational efficiency of an aeroelastic analysis. In...

Dynamic aeroelastic tailoring of a strut braced wing including fatigue loads

High aspect ratio strut braced aircraft can significantly reduce the induced drag. The inherent anisotropic behaviour of the composite material along with their weight saving potential can improve the performance of the aircraft during the flight. Thus, a composite strut braced aircraft is one of the promising candidates to achieve the...

Effect of improved flight and control loads modelling on wing-box preliminary sizing

The proposed approach in this paper aims to bring the accuracy of CFD to quick linear aeroelastic simulations for structural sizing. This is achieved by deriving reduced-order models (ROM) of the aircraft movables, gust loads and manoeuvres loads from rigid CFD analysis and to use these as substitutes for the loads in the aeroelastic simulation....

Design and testing of a low subsonic wind tunnel gust generator

This paper summarises the design of a gust generator and the comparison between high fidelity numerical results and experimental results. The gust generator has been designed for a low subsonic wind tunnel in order to perform gust response experiments on wings and assess load alleviation. Special attention has been given to the different...

A novel dynamic aeroelastic framework for aeroelastic tailoring and structural optimisation

Driven by a need to improve the efficiency of aircraft and reduce the fuel consumption, composite materials are applied extensively in the design of aircraft. A dynamic aeroelastic framework for the conceptual design of a generic composite wing structure is presented. The wing is discretised in several spanwise sections, where each section has a...

Design and testing of a low subsonic wind tunnel gust generator

This paper summarises the design of a gust generator and the comparison between high fidelity numerical results and experimental results. The gust generator has been designed for a low subsonic wind tunnel in order to perform gust response experiments on wings and assess load alleviation. Special attention has been given to the different design...