Design of Aircraft Structures: An Overview

This chapter presents some of the important aspects in the design and analysis of aircraft structures. These important aspects are related to material selection, structural configuration, loads evaluation, static strength and deflection estimation, static

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Design of Aircraft Structures: An Overview S. Kamle, R. Kitey, P.M. Mohite, C.S. Upadhyay, C. Venkatesan and D. Yadav

Abstract This chapter presents some of the important aspects in the design and analysis of aircraft structures. These important aspects are related to material selection, structural configuration, loads evaluation, static strength and deflection estimation, static stability evaluation, fatigue and fracture effects, aeroelastic considerations, and influence of dynamic loadings. The key aspects in specific areas are combined to provide an overall perspective of aircraft structural design and analysis. It must be noted that manufacturing and ground and flight testing are integral parts of the whole process of design, but these aspects are not addressed here. Keywords Aircraft structures Landing gear

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 Material properties  Stiffened shells  Buckling 

Introduction

For the design of aircraft structures, expertise is required in four broad areas, namely structural analysis, design including configuration and material selection, manufacturing (including assembly and testing), and flight testing. For the success of a vehicle additional aspects such as cost, operational and maintenance issues, environmental impact, safety, and comfort will need to be included. In this chapter, we set forth a broad perspective of aircraft structural design, based on the authors’ individual expertise and knowledge. In general, aircraft structural design is driven by two design philosophies, namely fail-safe design and safe-life design. Fail-safe design (denoted also as damage tolerant design) ensures that between two consecutive inspection intervals the overall structural integrity and function are not affected by failure or damage in some part of the structure. When failure or damage is detected, the aircraft is repaired and validated for continued service. S. Kamle  R. Kitey  P.M. Mohite  C.S. Upadhyay  C. Venkatesan (&)  D. Yadav Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 N. Eswara Prasad and R.J.H. Wanhill (eds.), Aerospace Materials and Material Technologies, Indian Institute of Metals Series, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2143-5_12

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Safe-life design implies that the structure and its components will function without any failure during the prescribed lifetimes for the components. Upon reaching the prescribed lifetime, it is the intention that a component or components is/are replaced or that the aircraft is retired from service. In practice, it may be feasible to justify extension of the service life, and this is sometimes done. In the following, some important aspects of aircraft structural design and analysis are presented.

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Major Structural Components of an Aircraft

The typical functions of a structural component are primarily to resist and transmit the forces that it experiences. However, in aerospace applications the structure as a whole also has to provide aerodyn