Materials Selection and Design Study of a Composite Microlight Wing Structure

摘要

A design study of a composite wing to replace the built up wing on the MW5 microlight aircraft is presented. Material tests were performed on a wide range of glass fiber reinforced plastics, and from these an optimum skin configuration was found using a computerized analysis of mathematical models of both the structure and the loading. Styrofoam was chosen as the core material to resist skin buckling, and the resulting wing affords a weight saving of 27% over the built up wing, while giving a reserve factor of 2.8. A method of wing construction was devised, and schemes for the wing fittings were also drafted. The requirement for experimental verification of the wing design was appreciated, and an investigation into the feasibility of using scale models for part of the test program was assessed.