Graphite-epoxy Composite Design for Aircrcaft Wing Spar Using Computational Techniques – Part I

摘要

This research work investigates graphite-epoxy design for light weight high performance structure of an aircraft wing spar using computational techniques. MATLAB MuPAD software was used to derive analytical models for the aircraft wing loads using symbolic computation to estimate shear and bending moment forces acting on the wings while ANSYS 14 Mechanical APDL software was used to design and analyze the modeled composite structures of the wing spar. To carry out progressive failure analyses of the various graphite-epoxy composite wing spar designs under bending moment, finite element analysis with ANSYS 14 Mechanical APDL software was employed to determine which spar design would best withstand the bending moment of 10,000Nm generated from the MATLAB MuPAD software. The investigation revealed that all the three designs of Low Modulus (LM) spar, High Modulus (HM) spar and Ultra Modulus (UM) spar failed at 16,801.8 N/m2 which is above the wing bending moment with ultra-modulus spar having the least deflection of 0.143 m because of its high stiffness property.