Contribution to load alleviation in aircraft pre-design and its influence on structural mass and fatigue

Abstract

This thesis develops and demonstrates an aircraft pre-design process for loads analysis, load alleviation, structural optimization and fatigue analysis. It is shown that the consideration of maneuver and gust load alleviation in early design stages is a promising concept to reduce wing bending moments, structural mass and extend the fatigue life. The reference aircraft considered are two mid-range configurations: one with a backward and another one with a forward swept wing, respectively. In the loads analysis, quasi-steady maneuvers and dynamic 1-cos gusts are considered. For the load alleviation during maneuvers, the ailerons are deflected symmetrically with precalculated amplitudes. For the gust load alleviation, a feed-forward, proportional control algorithm is set up and the main input for the controller is the gust angle of attack. Analogous to maneuver load alleviation, the ailerons are deflected symmetrically. With the post-processed loads from the simulations, the structure of the wing and horizontal tailplane (HTP) is optimized toward mass minimization. The constraints considered are material strength, buckling stability and static aeroelastic requirements. The steps loads analysis and structure optimization of the developed design process are conducted iteratively until the wing box mass converges. For the reference aircraft, the load alleviation yields a reduction of wing box mass by 2.8% and 6.1%, respectively. Beyond that, a qualitative fatigue analysis is carried out to compare the fatigue behaviors of the active and passive aircraft (with and without load alleviation). In this step, loads due to continuous turbulence and ground-air-ground cycles are considered. For the reference missions, the fatigue life of the active aircraft is improved by 28% and 12% respectively, on top of the mass benefit. However, these numbers of fatigue life improvement are only valid for the considered loads and selected positions. If more loading conditions or structure elements are taken into account, the fatigue benefit may vary. As a conclusion, the proposed process can serve to gain an insight into the benefits of load alleviation for a given aircraft in the pre-design phase, before it advances to the next design stage.