Coupling equivalent plate and beam models at conceptual design level

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a formulation that couples equivalent plate and beam models for aircraft structures analysis, suitable in conceptual design in which fast model generation and efficient analysis capability are required. Design/methodology/approach – Assembling the complete model with common techniques such as Lagrange multipliers or penalty function method would require a solver capable of handling the combined set of linear equation. The alternative approach proposed here is based on a static reduction of the beam model at specified connection points and the subsequent “embedding” into the equivalent plate model using a coordinate transformation, translating physical dfs in Ritz coordinates, i.e. polynomial coefficients. Displacements and forces on beam elements are recovered with the inverse transformation once the solution is computed. Findings – An aeroelastic trim analysis on a Transonic CRuiser (TCR) civil aircraft conceptual model validates the hybrid model: as the ...