Flying-wing aircraft are considered to have great advantages and potentials in
aerodynamic performance and weight saving. However, they also have many
challenges in design. One of the biggest challenges is the structural design of
the inner wing (fuselage). Unlike the conventional fuselage of a tube
configuration, the flying-wing aircraft inner wing cross section is limited to a
noncircular shape, which is not structurally efficient to resist the internal
pressure load. In order to solve this problem, a number of configurations have
been proposed by other designers such as Multi Bubble Fuselage (MBF),
Vaulted Ribbed Shell (VLRS), Flat Ribbed Shell (FRS), Vaulted Shell
Honeycomb Core (VLHC), Flat Sandwich Shell Honeycomb Core (FLHC), Y
Braced Box Fuselage and the modified fuselage designed with Y brace
replaced by vaulted shell configurations. However all these configurations still
inevitably have structural weight penalty compared with optimal tube fuselage
layout. This current study intends to focus on finding an optimal configuration
with minimum structural weight penalty for a flying-wing concept in a preliminary
design stage.
A new possible inner wing configuration, in terms of aerodynamic shape and
structural layout, was proposed by the author, and it might be referred as
‘Wave-Section Configuration’. The methodologies of how to obtain a structurally
efficient curvature of the shape, as well as how to conduct the initial sizing were
incorporated.
A theoretical analysis of load transmission indicated that the Wave-Section
Configuration is feasible, and this was further proved as being practical by FE
analysis. Moreover, initial FE analysis and comparison of the Wave-Section
Configuration with two other typical configurations, Multi Bubble Fuselage and
Conventional Wing, suggested that the Wave-Section Configuration is an
optimal design in terms of weight saving. However, due to limitations of the
author’s research area, influences on aerodynamic performances have not yet
been taken into account.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/7439 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Huang, Haidong |
| Contributors | Guo, S. J. |
| Publisher | Cranfield University |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Masters, MSc by Research |
| Rights | © Cranfield University 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner. |
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