The design of an aircraft wing often involves the use of mathematical methods for simultaneous aerodynamic and structural design. The goal of many of these methods is to minimize the drag on the wing. A variety of computer models exist for this purpose, but some require the use of expensive time and computational resources to give meaningful results. As an alternative, some mathematical methods have been developed that give reason ably accurate results without the need for a computer. However, most of these methods can only be used for wings with specific shapes and payload distributions. In this thesis, a hybrid mathematical/computational approach to wing design is developed that can be used for wings of any shape with any payload distribution. Specific mathematical expressions are found to predict the weight and drag for tapered wings and elliptic-shaped wings. The new approach and mathematical expressions are used to find the best distribution of lift on a variety of aircraft wing configurations to minimize drag during flight.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-8012 |
| Date | 01 May 2018 |
| Creators | Taylor, Jeffrey D. |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact digitalcommons@usu.edu. |
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