Design and Testing of Aeroelastically Tailored Wings Under Maneuver Loading

Abstract

The goal of the present paper is to provide experimental validation data for the aeroelastic analysis of composite aeroelastically tailored wings with a closed-cell cross-sectional structure. Several rectangular wings with differ- ent skin thicknesses and composite layups are designed in order to minimise root bending moment under manoeuvre loading using an aeroelastic anal- ysis framework that closely couples a geometrically nonlinear beam model to a vortex lattice aerodynamic model. The globally convergent method of moving asymptotes is used to derive an optimised layup for the tailored wings. In addition a quasi-isotropic wing is analysed to serve as a ref- erence. Both the tailored wings and the quasi-isotropic wing have been manufactured and tested structurally and in the wind tunnel. In the wind tunnel, aerodynamic forces and moments and wing deformation have been measured to provide experimental validation data.