Wing Structure of the Next-Generation Civil Tiltrotor: From Concept to Preliminary Design

Belardo, Marika; Marano, Aniello Daniele; Beretta, Jacopo; Diodati, Gianluca; Graziano, Mario; Capasso, Mariacarmela; Ariola, Pierpaolo; Orlando, S.; Caprio, Francesco Di; Paletta, Nicola; Palma, Luigi Di

doi:10.3390/aerospace8040102

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This article is a continuation of former works [10,11] in which a two-level optimization of the composite wing of the Next Generation Civil Tiltrotor-Technological Demonstrator (NGCTR-TD) was presented.…”

Section: Introduction: Soa Starting Point and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…The FEM was characterized by a coarse mesh (mean mesh size of 2.0 in), which has subsequently been replaced, for strength and buckling by a detailed global FEM (DFEM) to allow for higher fidelity stress analysis. An image of the model can be found in [11].…”

Section: Models For Strength Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first-level optimization aimed at having, at the very beginning of the project (the concept design level), a safe structural configuration, free from flutter at minimum mass. The second-level optimization was based on a 1D-2D element finite element model [11], built based on the solution selected from the first-level structural optimization. The main requirements feeding the design of the wing regard the frequency placement of the selected wing structural modes and flutter clearance, whereas the output of the process is the optimal wing design, which minimizes weight and is compliant with strength and buckling requirements.…”

Section: Introduction: Soa Starting Point and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aeroelastic Tailoring of the Next Generation Civil Tiltrotor Technological Demonstrator Composite Wing

et al. 2022

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The tiltrotor wing structure is one of the most critical and heavily investigated structures in design due to the fundamental need to consider the interactions between the wing, pylon, and rotor systems to achieve aircraft aeroelastic stability. Indeed, in high-speed forward flight, wing flexural and torsional stiffness have fundamental roles in pitch-whirl stability. Another specific concern of tiltrotors is dynamic mode placement; it is necessary to properly place wing bending modes away from prop-rotor forcing frequencies. The main aeroelastic stability and dynamics requirements and the wing design process flow for the next generation civil tiltrotor are presented in this work. In this context, the use of composite materials plays a fundamental role in the attempt to satisfy the requirements, with the perpetual aim of minimizing the structural weight. An overview of the idealized and adopted models for strength, aeroelasticity, and whirl flutter analysis is provided. The primary focus was on the aeroelastic tailoring process. To satisfy, at the same time, all of the structural dynamic and aeroelastic stability requirements, the best compromise, with an acceptable weight penalty, was the mixture of two methodological solutions: adding unidirectional tape in the zones of the upper and lower skins for flexural out-of-plane frequency and adding a proper number of ±45° fabric layers at the locations of the skin with the highest value of strain energy for in-plane torsional modes. The results show that the proposed method based on modal strain energy analysis enables a tiltrotor aeroelastic tailored wing design. It can be easily employed in similar applications (e.g., vehicle scale-up/down) with the advantage of using the stiffness requirements derived directly from the aeroelastic ones (i.e., structural frequencies). The specific wing achieved aeroelastic clearance by adding only 2.7% of extra mass.

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Section: Introduction: Soa Starting Point and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Models For Strength Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction: Soa Starting Point and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aeroelastic Tailoring of the Next Generation Civil Tiltrotor Technological Demonstrator Composite Wing

et al. 2022

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“…There are numerous studies that consider changes in airplane configuration and their impacts on performances. These novel configurations would result in a drastic change in the appearance of the airplane, for instance, joined-wing, flying wing, blended wing body or box-wing [14][15][16][17][18][19]. However, despite the potential benefits presented by these configurations, it is not foreseeable that manufacturers would launch these aircraft to market due to the drastic change they entail and their intrinsic complexity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Process and Environmental Impact of Unconventional Tail Airliners

Sanchez-Carmona

Cuerno-Rejado

2021

Aerospace

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The future of aviation depends on reducing the environmental impact of the aircraft. Unconventional configurations can be the change the industry needs to achieve that goal. Therefore, the development of a tool that allows analyzing these configurations will contribute to their being considered more easily in future designs. This design procedure is based on an aerodynamic model and a weight methodology validated for unconventional tail designs. The load cases selected to size the structure were extracted from the certification regulations in force. In order to validate the methodology, the V-tail configuration was selected as a case study. The fuel savings reached with this tail configurations are around 0.7%, and the reduction in NOx emissions are even greater. Thus, the methodology has been validated and it can be easily adapted to other unconventional tail configurations.

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“…This aspect has a tremendous impact both on wing design and on the fuel storage system concept. In fact, for the tiltrotor under consideration, the wing has to be able to respect strength, buckling and stiffness requirements [4,5]; under a survivable crash, to break in a defined section in order to alleviate the inertial load on the fuselage; and to allow crew and passenger to safely escape outside the vehicle. On the other hand, the fuel storage system has to be based on the bladder concept and not on the wet-wing concept (which is common practice for fixed wing aircrafts) [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crashworthiness of a Composite Bladder Fuel Tank for a Tilt Rotor Aircraft

Paciello¹,

Pezzella²,

Belardo

et al. 2021

J. Compos. Sci.

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The fulfilment of the crash is a demanding requirement for a Tiltrotor. Indeed, such a kind of aircraft, being a hybrid between an airplane and a helicopter, inherits the requirements mainly from helicopters (EASA CS 29) due to its hovering ability. In particular, the fuel storage system must be designed in such a manner that it is crash resistant, under prescribed airworthiness requirements, in order to avoid the fuel leakage during such an event, preventing fire and, thus, increasing the survival chances of the crew and the passengers. The present work deals with the evaluation of crashworthiness of the fuel storage system of a Tiltrotor (bladder tank), and, in particular, it aims at describing the adopted numerical approach and some specific results. Crash resistance requirements are considered from the earliest design stages, and for this reason they are mainly addressed from a numerical point of view and by simulations that treat both single components and small/medium size assemblies. The developed numerical models include all the main parts needed for simulating the structural behavior of the investigated wing section: the tank, the structural components of the wing, the fuel sub-systems (fuel lines, probes, etc.) and the fuel itself. During the crash event there are several parts inside the tanks that can come into contact with the tank structure; therefore, it is necessary to evaluate which of these parts can be a damage source for the tank itself and could generate fuel loss. The SPH approach has been adopted to discretise fuel and to estimate the interaction forces with respect to the tank structure. Experimental data were used to calibrate the fuel tank and foam material models and to define the acceleration time-history to be applied. Thanks to the optimized foam’s configuration, the amount of dissipated impact energy is remarkable, and the evaluation of tanks/fuel system stress distribution allows estimating any undesired failure due to a survivable crash event.

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Wing Structure of the Next-Generation Civil Tiltrotor: From Concept to Preliminary Design

Cited by 22 publications

References 14 publications

Aeroelastic Tailoring of the Next Generation Civil Tiltrotor Technological Demonstrator Composite Wing

Aeroelastic Tailoring of the Next Generation Civil Tiltrotor Technological Demonstrator Composite Wing

Design Process and Environmental Impact of Unconventional Tail Airliners

Crashworthiness of a Composite Bladder Fuel Tank for a Tilt Rotor Aircraft

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