Aeroelastic effects strongly influence the design of an aircraft. To be able to assess those effects early on, reliable simulation models representing the global aeroelastic properties of a new design are required. At a conceptual or a pre-design stage, an intelligent parameterization concept allows for limited changes of the configuration while the simulation models are adapted accordingly. In the DLR project Integrated Green Aircraft, the goal was to investigate the impact of technologies for the reduction of fuel consumption on the aeroelastic properties of aircraft. One main aspect was the influence of laminar wing design on divergence, flutter and dynamic loads. As the reference aircraft in the project, the concept of a forward-swept wing aircraft with rear-mounted engines has been analysed. An aeroelastic model has been built up in the project. The model design procedure is based on the DLR in-house tool set MONA (ModGen/NASTRAN). Focus of this design process is the generation of a parameterized structural model, representing the global dynamic properties of the elastic aircraft, but as detailed as reasonable to capture relevant local effects and to result in a feasible structural design. In the article, the aircraft design is presented. The modelling and sizing process for the structure is described. Results of the loads analysis as well as of the aeroelastic stability analyses are discussed.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the engine position and mass as well as the pylon stiffness on the aeroelastic stability of a long-range wide-body transport aircraft. As reference configuration, DLR’s (German Aerospace Center/Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt) generic aircraft configuration DLR-D250 is taken. The structural, mass, loads, and optimization models for the reference and a modified configuration with different engine and pylon parameters are set up using DLR’s automatized aeroelastic design process cpacs-MONA. At first, the cpacs-MONA process with its capabilities for parametric modeling of the complete aircraft and in particular the set-up of a generic elastic pylon model is unfolded. Then, the influence of the modified engine-wing parameters on the flight loads of the main wing is examined. The resulting loads are afterward used to structurally optimize the two configurations component wise. Finally, the results of post-cpacs-MONA flutter analyses performed for the two optimized aircraft configurations with the different engine and pylon characteristics are discussed. It is shown that the higher mass and the changed position of the engine slightly increased the flutter speed. Although the lowest flutter speeds for both configurations occur at a flutter phenomenon of the horizontal tail-plane outside of the aeroelastic stability envelope.
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