Structural Bionics Design and Experimental Analysis for Small Wing

Abstract

The design of small wing structures is mainly to determine the form, distribution and dimension of wing spars and ribs, so as to assure the structural strength and stiffness. By the reasonable distribution and combination of organism structures and materials, biological skeletons can meet the need of multifunction of the organisms, thus providing inexhaustible inspiration for the structural bionic design of aircrafts. The leaf vein is in the shape of hollow ellipse tubes, and its size gradually reduces along the vein axis. The main structural features are slant, stagger and bifurcation in order to adapt to the different characteristics of stress distribution in different parts. On the foundation of analyzing the characteristics of small wing structural design, by virtue of the structure characteristic of the vein and by using the similar theories, the bionic type wings are designed. The finite element analysis(FEA) results show that the bionic type wing has higher structure efficiency than the prototype wing. Static strength and rigidity experiments on the conventional and bionic samples fabricated with selective laser sintering(SLS) process, are carried out. Compared to the prototype wing, the bionic type wing has less weight, stress and deformation, which proves the effectiveness of structural bionics design and the reliability of FEA.