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.

Keywords

Box wing tip fin inclination structural design

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Wolkovitch

. The joined wing: an overview. J Aircr 1986; 23: 161–178.

Kroo

Gallman

Smith

. Aerodynamic and structural studies of joined-wing aircraft. J Aircr 1991; 28(1): 74–81.

Nangia RK, Palmer ME, and Tilman CP. Unconventional high aspect ratio joined-wing aircraft with aft and forward swept wing tips. In: Proceedings of the 41st Aerospace sciences meeting, Reno, Nevada, 6–9 January 2003, paper no. AIAA-2003-0605.

Henderson

Huffman

. Aerodynamic characteristic of a tandem wing configuration at a Mach number of 0.30. Washington, DC: NASA, report no. TM X-72779, March 1975.

Hajela

. Weight evaluation of the joined wing configuration. Washington, DC: NASA, report no. CR - 166592, June 1984.

Prandtl

. Induced drag of multiplanes. Technische Berichte 1924; III(7): 309–315.

Munk

. The minimum induced drag of airfoils. Washington, DC: NACA, report no. 121, March 1923.

Frediani

. The Prandtl wing. In: Innovative configurations and advanced concepts for future civil aircraft. Belgium: Von Karman Institute, 2005, Lecture series VKI, 2005-06, pp.1–23.

Addoms

Spaid

. Aerodynamic design of high performance biplane wings. J Aircr 1975; 12(8): 629–630.

10.

Lin H, Jhou J, and Stearman R. Influence of joint fixity on the structural static and dynamic response of a joined-wing aircraft. In: Proceedings of the 31st AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures structural dynamics and materials conference, Long Beach, CA, 2–4 April 1990. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, paper no. AIAA 90-0980.

11.

Bagwell T and Selberg B. Aerodynamic investigation of joined wing configurations for transport aircraft. In: Proceedings of the 14th Applied aerodynamics conference, New Orleans, LA, 17–19 June 1996. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, paper no. AIAA 96-2373.

12.

Smith

Jemitola

. A - 9 box wing medium range airliner – Project specification. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Cranfield University, Cranfield. 2009.

13.

Drela M and Youngren H. Athena vortex lattice user manual. ver. 3.26. Available at: http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/avl/ 2006 (accessed 29 April 2008).

14.

Strand7. Release 2.3.8 user’s guide. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Strand7 Pty Limited, 2007.

15.

Howe

. Aircraft loading and structural layout. London: Professional Engineering Publishing Limited, 2004.