Abstract
The aeroelastic behavior of high-aspect-ratio very flexible flying wing is highly affected by the geometric nonlinearities of the aircraft structure. This paper reviews the findings on how these nonlinearities influence the structural and flight dynamics, and it shows that the aeroelastic flight envelope could significantly be extended with proper choices of design parameters such as engine placement. Moreover, in order to investigate the physics behind the effects of design parameters, constructal theory of design is reviewed. The constructal theory advances the philosophy of design as science, it states that the better structural design emerges when stress flow strangulation is avoided. Furthermore, it shows that airplanes, through their evolution, have obeyed theoretical allometric rules that unite their designs.
Highlights
The growing interest in commercial, industrial, and unmanned air travel demands reliable, efficient and cost-effective aircraft design strategies more than ever
The results reveals a significant difference between the flight dynamic characteristics obtained with rigid aircraft assumption, and the ones obtained considering the deformed aircraft configuration
Engine location is measured along the wing span, and the results show that the maximum and minimum flutter speeds occur for engine placement at 60% of the span and wing tip, respectively
Summary
The growing interest in commercial, industrial, and unmanned air travel demands reliable, efficient and cost-effective aircraft design strategies more than ever. Strategies to contemplate new ideas for our continuously evolving expectations of aircraft. In addition to conventional air travel and freight, the new generation of aircraft is widely used for unmanned reconnaissance, surveillance, environmental sensing, and data relay. They need to be suited for high-altitude and long-endurance (HALE) flights. Due to the high aspect-ratio of the wings, such aircraft usually have very flexible structures, and they can experience large deflections [1]. The large deflections will introduce considerable geometric nonlinearity to structural equations. A linear aeroelastic analysis can no longer provide an accurate and reliable model of the aircraft’s flight characteristics
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