Influence of Fuselage Bulkhead Stiffness on Composite Wing Weight of a Civil Aircraft

Lohith, N and Kumari, Asha and Varughese, Byji (2012) Influence of Fuselage Bulkhead Stiffness on Composite Wing Weight of a Civil Aircraft. In: INCCOM-12, 12 Dec 2012, Bangalore.

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Abstract

Weight estimation of aircraft components is extremely important in the initial phase of aircraft design process as it will be a crucial input to estimate aircraft performance parameters. Generally, the sizing of aircraft components has to be performed individually by simulating the stiffness of the adjoining structure. Thus a conceptual design of how the components are integrated is of paramount importance. In the case of wing design, having done a conceptual design of integration of wing to fuselage, for weight estimation of the wing structure, it is appropriate to include the fuselage bulkheads in the wing model to simulate close to real boundary conditions though not actual. However, it is important to provide proper stiffness to the bulkheads as it will have a major impact on the outcome of the results. Hence numerical optimization studies are carried out on the composite wing structure of a civil aircraft along with the fuselage bulkheads of varied stiffness using NASTRAN solver. The optimization problem is formulated with minimum mass as the objective with strength and buckling constraints. The stiffness of the bulkhead is varied by varying the thickness with a constant cross section. Only the inter-spar box of the wing is considered for the study as it is the main load carrying portion of the wing. It is observed that the bulkhead stiffness plays a major role on the final results.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	CHEMISTRY AND MATERIALS > Composite Materials
Depositing User:	Mrs SK Pratibha
Date Deposited:	04 Jun 2015 05:14
Last Modified:	04 Jun 2015 05:14
URI:	http://nal-ir.nal.res.in/id/eprint/12125

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