Tip fin inclination effect on structural design of a box-wing aircraft

Abstract

Computational studies were performed at conceptual design level to investigate the structural implications of changing only the tip fin inclinations on a medium-range box wing aircraft. Tip fin inclination refers to the angle the tip fin makes to the vertical body axis of the aircraft. This study is mainly addressed to conceptual designers. For different tip fin inclinations, flight loads were generated using a vortex lattice tool. These flight loads were then input into finite element simulations allowing the preliminary structural elements to be sized. For the category of aircraft considered, no significant variations in wing structural design drivers as a function of tip fin inclination were observed.