Stacking sequence optimisation of an aircraft wing skin

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a stacking sequence optimisation process of a composite aircraft wing skin. A two-stage approach is employed to satisfy all sizing requirements of this industrial sized, medium altitude, long endurance drone. In the first stage of the optimisation, generic stacks are used to describe the thickness and stiffness properties of the structure while considering both structural requirements and discrete guidelines such as blending. In the second stage of the optimisation, mathematical programming is used to solve a Mixed Integer Linear Programming formulation of the stacking sequence optimisation. The proposed approach is suitable for real-world thick structures comprised of multiple patches. Different thickness discretisation strategies are examined for the retrieval of the discrete stacking sequences, with each one having a different influence on the satisfaction of all structural constraints across the various sub-components of the wing. The weight penalty introduced between the continuous and final discrete design of the proposed approach is negligible.

Impact Behavior and Residual Strength of PEEK/CF-Laminated Composites with Various Stacking Sequences

“…For the selection of the layups in the experiment, the basic rules and restrictions for the design and production of composites provided by Ntourmas et al [ 20 ]: Symmetry. In order to avoid coupling between bending and extension symmetric laminates are usually preferred.…”

“…For the selection of the layups in the experiment, the basic rules and restrictions for the design and production of composites provided by Ntourmas et al [20]:…”

“…Based on the results of the literature review, it can be seen that a sufficient number of works, including ones from recent years, deal with the influence of layups on the impact properties of laminated composites. However, most of them consider layups that do not meet the requirements described in [ 20 ] or the number of layups in the study is limited to two or three types.…”