Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Aj ach Fifth Edition 13 Daniel P. Raymer AAircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach Fifth Edition Daniel P. Raymer Conceptual Research Corporation Playa det Rey, California AIAA EDUCATION SERIES Joseph A. Schetz, Editor-in-Chief ‘Vipita Polycchne Institute and State Univesity Blacksburg, Virginia Published by dhe ‘meian Itt of Aeronautics and Astonati Te TWO Aland Bell ve, Reston, Vigan 20191-348 @AIAA-pad savas Eo}, S a bo 2 ‘The cover shows fr term les ransprt design developed by De Raymer inderon- tect to NASA-GRC. The use of advanced conta technologis penis the mination ‘oftadons als resulting in major savings in weight and dag hs ext concept ns designed and anayzainthe RDS Praesonal acral dan eltwareand exported ana {3D geome fle The CAD rendering wis dn om that fleby Aled Ras Pot the FIA Aeronautical Foundation (Boga, Colombia og the Blender 3D content cre sion ste andthe Yay cay teacing program, The render model was made wl 8 ‘objects and 285564 faces, Rendering was done ont MacBk Pro snl tok about 3 hous Me Ramiele created the eoorl plan marking scheme. ‘The underlay isa computer generated top view of Dr. Raymers Advanced Tactical Faghter design which, in ater form, wa Rockwall etry into the competion that led tothe P22 This concep war dened sing Rockwils Configurston Develop, iment Sytem, a panering, CAD system for afr cncepial dese The cont Tay, incorporating these ment wae done by ALAA fn Klan ‘American Insite of Aeronauies and Astron, Ine, Reston, Vina 1234567890 Uirary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Raymer, Dan ‘Aircraft design: conceptual approach / Dani . Raymer. ~ Sth ed Prem. (AIAA edeation series) locales ibllographicalreerence an inde, ISBN 978-1-60ma6 11-2 1, Airplnes-Desgn and constustion. L THe ‘Tusriatoap12 e29301-4e23 2or2n11954 ‘Gopi © 2012 Dani P Raymer. All ight reserved able bythe American stuf Aeronauss and Astronautics with permission. Printed nthe United States ‘of Amerie No prt oft publi maybe reprodced tite ornate {in any form or by any means o stored database oe seal sytem, without the ior writen perision ofthe pals ata and information appearing inthis book fr information purpoes oly. AAA 's not sesponible for any inary o damage resin ren use olan nor does ‘AAA warrant hat we France wl be ee fom privately owned right,892 Aircraft Desian: A Conceptual Approach Non-standard graphite compose sn land fiberglass F) leading edge | Fig. 1422 Wing material, nozzle interface, required because of the high temperatures around the i engine. The alternative, seen on the F-22, is an all-titanium structure | around the engine. Also, for a production fighter the windshield would be bulletproof material | HRRZZD Material Properties ‘This section covers varions commonly ised aireraft materials. Tables of representative material properties are at the back of this section, ME wood ‘The Wright Brothers selected spruce asthe primary structural material for ther aireraf, and it remained the material of choice for many yeas. Rarely used today in production aireaf, wood offers good strength-to- weight rato and i easy to fabricate and repair. It actually much like com- posite materials in that it has diferent properties indifferent directions ‘Worx! makes a natural bending beam for wing spars because ofthe length- | wise fibers. | ‘The wooden Hughes H-4 Hercules Flying Boat was built like a modeen i composite airraft, Multiple thin plies of wood were placed in molds along with resin glue and subjected to pressure during cure. Ply orientation was varied to give specific properties.————E Eee CHAPTER 14 Structures and loads 533 ‘The disadvantages of wood are its sensitivity to moisture and its suscep- tibility to rot and insect damage. Wood must be regularly maintained and should not be left exposed to the elements. The Hughes H-4 looks vir- tually new today because it was kept in a climate-controlled hangar. Also, wood is produced by nature with poor “quality control!" Each piece of ‘wood is unique, so it requires craftsman-like skills to manufacture aircraft with wood, “Today, wood is used largely in homebuilt and specialty, low-volume pro- duction aircraft. Wood has one additional advantage for homebuilders in that almost everyone knows how to saw, drill, and glue wood. However, the use of foam core and fiberglass-epoxy has largely replaced wood in homebuilt aircraft MEE] Aueviour ‘Aluminum remains by far the most widely used aircraft material. It has an excellent strength-to- weight ratio, is readily formed, is of moderate cost, and is resistant to chemical corrosion. ‘Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, occurring mostly as silicates in clays. Discovered in 1827, it remained an expensive novelty until an electrical extraction method was developed in 1885. In 1856 aluminum cost $90 a pound. By 1935 the cost had dropped to 23, cents per pound. Inflation has raised this to several dollars per pound today depending upon its form, Being relatively sot, pure aluminum is alloyed with other metals for air- craft use. The most common aluminum alloy is 2024 (or 24ST), sometimes called “duralumin.” This 2024 consists of 93.5% aluminum, 4.4% copper, 1.5% manganese, and 0.6% magnesium, strength applications, the 7075 alloy is widely used. The 7075 is alloyed with zinc, magnesium, and copper. Because the corrosion resist- ance is lessened by alloying, aluminum sheet is frequently clad with a thin layer of pure aluminum, Newer alloys such as 7050 and 7010 have improved cortosion resistance and strength. An extensive discussion af aluminum. alloys can be found in (102). TThe strength and stiffness properties of aluminum are affected by the form (sheet, plate, bar, extrusion, or forging) and by heat treatment and ‘tempering, In general, the stronger the aluminum, the more brittle itis. ‘While composite materials are considered the latest state of the art for lightweight aircraft structures, there are new aluminum aloys such as aluminum-lithium that offer nearly the same weight savings and can be formed by standard aluminum techniques. The Eurofighter “yphoon uses aluminum-lithium in the wing and tail leading edges. Aluminum will remain important in aircraft design for many years to come.Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach MED Sieo! ‘A major early advance in aircraft structures was the adoption of welded rmild-steel tubing for the fuselage. Previously, aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel had fuselages of wire-braced wood construction that required con- stant maintenance. The steel-tube fuselage, used extensively by Fokker, greatly improved strength and required less maintenance, Today, steel is used for applications requiring high strength and fatigue resistance, stich as wing attachment fittings. Also, steel is used wherever high temperatures are encountered such a8 for firewalls and engine mounts. The Mach 3 XB-70 (Fig. 14.18) was constructed largely of brazed steel honeycomb. This material proved strong at high temperatures but was extremely difficult to fabricate. Steel is primarily an alloy of iron and carbon, with the carbon adding strength to the soft iron. As carbon content increases, strength and brittle ness increase. Typical steel alloys have about 1% of carbon. Other materials such as chromium, molybdenum, nickel, and cobalt are alloyed with steel to provide various characteristics, The stainless-steel alloys are commonly used where corrosion resistance is important. ‘The properties of steel are strongly influenced by heat treatment and, tempering. The same alloy can have moderate strength and good ductility or can have much higher strength but atthe expense of brittleness, depend ing upon the heat treatment and tempering employed. Heat treatment begins by raising the temperature of the steel to about 1400~1600°F {760 -8700°C} at which point the carbon goes into solid sol- tution with the iron. The rate at which the steel is then cooled defines the srain structure, which determines strength and ductility. If the steel is slowly cooled by steadily reducing the temperature in the furnace (a process called annealing), a coarse grain structure is formed, and the steel is very ductile but weak. This is sometimes done before working with steel to make it easier to cut, drill, and bend. Ifthe heated steel is alowed to air-cool (to be “normalized’), it becomes ‘much stronger but retains good ductility. Welded steel tubing structure is usually normalized after all welding is completed to return the steel around the welds to the original strength. If quenched with water or oil, the steel becomes “martensitic” with a needle-like grain structure, great strength, and extreme brittleness. ‘To regain some ductility, the steel must be tempered by reheating itt about 1000°F {538°C} for an hour or more. Standard heat-treatment and ‘tempering processes are defined in material handbooks along with the resulting material properties, Steel is very cheap, costing about one-sixth what aluminum does, Steel is also easy to fabricate,CHAPTER 14 Structures and Loads (EEX) vitanium “Titanium would seem to be the ideal aerospace material Ithas a better strength-to-weight ratio and stfiness than aluminum and is capable of temperatures almost as high as stel. Titanium is also corrosion resistant ‘owever, titanium is difficult to form for these same reasons. Most tita- nium alloys must be formed at temperatures over 1000°F {538°C} and at very high forming stresses. Iso, titanium is seriously affected by any impurities that might be acc dently intoduced during forming. One of the worst impurity elements for ccmbrittling” titanium is hydrogen, followed by oxygen and nitrogen. After forming, titanium must be treated for embrittlement by chemical “pickling” for through heat treatment in a controlled environment. “Titanium is expensive, costing about five to ten times as much as alumi- rum. In the past it was more expensive to fabricate in titanium than alumi- hhum, ané “cost factors’ of double or triple were applied to cost estimates. Today, the technology has improved, and the cost of titanium fabrication is just slightly higher than aluminum fabrication. "To handle the aerodynamic heating of Mach 3+ flight, the structure of the SR-71 is about 90% titanium. The XR-70 uses a substantial amount of titanium in the forebody area. The midbody of the F-22 is largely titanium due to engine heating. Titanium is extensively used in jt-engine com- ponents and is also used in lower-speed aircraft for such high-stess ae Frame components as landing gear beams and spindles for all-moving tails: Because it does not cause galvanic corrosion with graphite—epoxy, titanium is sometimes used as the substructure to graphite - epoxy skins, Because of its material properties, titanium lends itself to a unique {forming process called “superplastc forming/diffusion bonding” (SPF/DB). SPF/DB is a process where the titanium is placed in a press mold under “extreme temperature and pressure such that it vitually “flows” to the shape ofthe mold. Furthermore, separate pieces of titanium are diffusion-bonded tthe same time, forming a joint that is indistinguishable from the original metal. This process offers both cost reduction and the ability to form ‘very complicated pats all having the good material properties of titanium, "The Fero-fighter Typhoon uses SPF/DB titanium for its canards rather than the originally intended composites because of its better productbiliy TRefrence [103] gives a more detailed discussion of titanium and its alloys. (EER Magnesium ‘Magnesium has a good strength-to-weight rato, tolerates high temp~ ceratures, and is easily formed, especially by casting, forging, and machining. 535536. Alrcratt Design: A Conceptual Approach thas been used for engine mounts, wheels, control hinges, brackets, stif- feners, uel tanks, and even wings. However, magnesium is very prone to corrosion and must have a protective finish. Furthermore, itis flammable! [Mil Specs advise against the use of magnesium except to gain significant ‘weight savings. Also, magnesium should not be used in areas that are dffi- cult to inspect or where the protective finish would be eroded by rain (leading edges) or engine exhaust. MIB High-Temperature Nickel Alloys Inconel, Rene 41, and Hastelloy are high-temperature nickel-based alloys suitable for hypersonic aircraft and reentry vehicles. Inconel was used extensively in the X-15, and Rene 41 was to have been used in the X-20 Dynasoar. Nickel alloy honeycomb sandwich is used for the stealth nozzles ofthe F-117. Hastelloy is used primarily in engine parts. ‘These alloys are substantially heavier than aluminum or titanium and are difficult to form. For these reasons, the space shuttle uses an aluminuin structure with heat-protective tiles. While a substantially lighter structure ‘was obtained, the difficulties experienced with the tiles should be noted by the designers of the next-generation shuttle MEX) composites ‘The greatest revolution in aircraft structures since the all-aluminum Northrop Alpha has been the ongoing adoption of composite materials for primary structure. In a typical aircraft part, the direct substitution of graphite~epoxy composite for aluminum yields a weight savings of 25%. ‘The F-22 and F/A-18E/F are about 25% composites by structural ‘weight. The AV-8B wing is almost entirely made of graphite-epoxy compo- site, and numerous military and commercial aircraft use composites for tails, laps, and doors, Composites consist of a reinforcing material suspended in a “matrix” ‘material that stabilizes the reinforcing material and bonds it to adjacent reinforcing materials. Composite parts are usually molded and can be cured at room conditions or at elevated temperature and pressure for ‘greater strength and quality. Figure 14.23 shows the two major composite forms, flament-reinforced and whisker-reinforced. In the whisker-reinforced composite, short strands of the reinforcing, material are randomly located throughout the matric. The most common ‘example of this is chopped fiberglass, which is used for low-cost fabrication, ‘of boats and fast-food restaurant seats, Whisker reinforcing is sometimes used in advanced metal matrix composites such as boron-aluminum,CHAPTER 14 Structures and Loads rae Fig. 1423 Composite material types ‘Most of the advanced composites used in aircraft structure are of the filament-reinforced type because of outstanding strength-t-weight ratio. ‘Also, filament composites can have their structural properties tailored to the expected loads in different directions. Metals and whisker-reinforced composites are isotrops, having the same material properties in all directions. Filament composites, like wood, are strongest in the direction the fibers are running, Ifa structural tlement such as a spar cap is to carry substantial load in only one direction, all of the fibers can be oriented in that direction. This offers a tremendous ‘weight savings. Figure 1424 shows four common arrangements for tailoring fiber orientation. In part a), all fibers are aligned with the principal axis so that the composite has maximum strength in that direction and has litle strength in other directions. Arrangement b) offers strength in the vertical direction as well. inc), the fibers are at 45-deg angles with the principal axis. This pro- vides strength in those two directions and also provides good shear strength jn the principal axis direction. For this reason, this arrangement is com- ‘monly seen in a composite-wing-box shear web. Also, the 45-deg orien- tation is frequently used in structure that must resist torque. “Arrangement d) combines b) and c), providing alternate ayers (plies) of fibers at 0-,45-, and 90-deg orientations. By varying the number of plies at these orientations, the designer can obtain virtually any combination of tensile, compression, and shear strength in any desired directions. “Another ply-orientation scheme uses plies that are 60 deg apart, Com- posites are sometimes designed with completely arbitrary ply directions to provide special characteristics. 537598 Attra Design: & Conceptual Approach a}0de9 bode#0dea fp — gt 1845 deg 0 degls45 deg deg Fig, 1424 Composite ply taring. Note that an odd number of plies is commonly used. This tends to reduce warpage, as has long been known by the makers of plywood. ‘The common forms of fiber used in composite production are shown in Fig. 1425. The chopped form is simply sprayed or pressed into the mold. Unidirectional tape comes on large rolls and is placed in the mold by hand or by a robotic tape-laying machine. Tape is usually pre-impregnated (*prepreg") with the matrix material Fabrics can be bidirectional, with fibers running at 0 and 90 deg, or uni- directional, with the fibers running in one direction. (A few fibers run at 90 deg to bind the fabric together.) Fabrics can also be prepreg, Fabrics are sometimes called "broadgoods.” Prepreg tape and fabric is typically about 0.005~0.01 in. {0.01— (0.08 em} thick per ply. In another form of composite, the individual filaments are wound around plugs to form shapes such as missile bodies and golf club shafts This is called “filament-wound” construction, ‘There are a number of fiber and matrix materials used in composite air- craft structure, Fiberglass with an epoxy—resin matrix has been used for years for such noristructural components as radomes and minor fairings More recently, fiberglass-epoxy has been used by homebuilders. ‘While fiberglass-epoxy has good strength characteristics, its excessive flexibility (tensile E) prevents its use in highly loaded structure in commer- cial or military aircraft. However, itis cheap and easy to form, and is suitable for some applications, The most commonly used advanced composite is geaphite-epoxy, called. “carbon-fiber composite” by the British who developed it. Graphite-epoxy composite has excellent strength-to-weight ratio and is not difficult to ‘mold, It is substantially more expensive than aluminum at the presentCHAPTER 14_ Structures and Loads time (roughly 20 times), but unlike metal ttle material is wasted in man- ‘facturing operations such as milling and cutting from flat patterns, ‘Boron epoxy was developed in the United States and initially used for complete part fabrication, An F-111 horizontal tail and F-4 rudder were built of bcron-epoxy. However, boron-epoxy costs over four times as much ‘as graphite-epony, so boron is used today largely to provide additional stiff ness to grphite-epoxy parts, especially in compression. "Aramid sold under the trade name Kevlar, is used with an epoxy matrix in lightly oaded applications. Aramid has alow compression strength, but exhibits much more gradual failure than other composites (i.e. less brittle) ‘A graphite-aramid-epoxy hybrid composite offers more ductility than pure fgraphite-epoxy. It Is used in the Boeing 757 for fairings and landing gear doors ‘Composites using epoxy as the matrix ae limited to maximum temp- ceratures of about 350°F {177°C} and normally are not used in applications ‘where temperatures will exceed 260°F {127°C}. For higher-temperature applications, several advanced matrix materials are in development. The polyimide resins show great promise. One polyimide, bismaleimide {BMI stows good strength at 350°F {177°C}. A materia called polymide shows good strength at up to 600°E {315°C} but is dificult ro process. "The matrix materials just described ae all “thermoset” resins, chemical ‘mixtures that “cure producing a change in the material's chemistry at the molecular level upon the application of heat. The thermoset process is not reversible. Ifthe composite part is heated up again, the thermosetting matrix does not revert to a liquid state. Univetional tape Unidirectional Biecional| ‘fabric fabric Fig. 1425 Composite production forms. 539540 Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach In contrast, a “thermoplastic” matrix material does not undergo a chemical change when heated. It merely “runs” and can be heated up again and reformed. Much like the plastics used in model airplanes, ther ‘moplastic materials can be readily formed with heat. ‘Thermoplastic materials include polyester, acrylic, polycarbonate, phenoxy, and polyethersulfone, Thermoplastic matrix materials can be used with the same fiber materials (graphite, boron, etc.) as the thermoset composites. Thermoplastics are especially good for higher temperature applications and where toughness is desired. The F-1175 were retrofitted with graphite thermoplastic vertical tails, probably due to their proximity to the hot nozzles. Thermoset materials tend to be readily damaged, so thermoplastics are desirable for doors, access panels, and anywhere on the bottom where rocks ean bounce up from the landing gear. For higher-temperature, high-strength applications, “metal-matrix composites" are in development. These use metals such as aluminum or titanium as the matrix with boron, silicon carbide, or aramid as the fiber. Composite materials offer impressive weight savings, but have problems too, one problem being a reluctance to accept concentrated loads. Joints and fitings that smoothly spread the concentrated load out over the com- posite part must be used. If a component such as a fuselage or wing has a Jarge number of cutouts and doors, the fittings to spread out those concen- trated loads can eliminate the weight savings. Wing attachment is another area where large and heavy metal fittings must be used to spread the load out into the composite skins. This is especially true where a composite Wing is joined to a ring frame carrythrough structure. The Eurofighter (Typhoon) has about 70% of its structure built from graphite composite and uses three large titanium root joints to attach each wing box to the fuse- lage carrythrough frames. ‘The strength of a composite is affected by moisture content, cure cycle, temperature exposure, ultraviolet exposure, and the exact ratio of fer to ‘matrix. These ate difficult to control, and every composite part will prob- ably have slightly different properties. Manufacturing voids are difficult to avoid or detect, and the scrappage rate for composite parts can be high (ut is improving as composites are more widely used) Composites in general are more likely to be damaged than aluminum. Unfortunately, mild damage to composites can occur internally after some impact, yet not show up by outside visual inspection. For this reason, composites must be designed to carry their full limit load after such nondetectable damage Furthermore, composites are difficult to repair because of the need to match strength and stifiness characteristics. A patch that is weak is obviously undesirable, but one thats overstrong can cause excessive deflec tion on adjoining areas, which can lead to fracture. Proper repair of anCHAPTER 14. Structures and Loads important composite part requires running a computer program to insure that the repaired part will match the original design specifications. ‘The properties of a composite materialare not simply the algebraic sum of the properties of the individual ply layers. Actual material properties must be calculated using tensor calculus equations, such as are outlined in [104]. Furthermore, extensive coupon testing is required to determine design allowables for the selected materisls and ply orientation, Introduc- tions to composites are provided in [105] and [106] “There sa designer's rule of thumb for composites called the “ten-percent rule" (presented in (1071), which gives a quick and reasonably good strength, approximation for typical composites. This rule is valid for composites with plies oriented at 0 deg (ie, the direction ofthe load), 90 deg, and +/-45 deg, and assumes that the 0-deg plies contribute their full strength while the other plies contribute only 10% of thee full strength. In other words, simply add the rhumber of plies times the strength per ply, but multiply al plies that are not running in the direction of the applied load by 0.10. Needless to say, this rough approximation is onty for intial sizing purposes and should never be relied upon for a final design analysis! Sandwich Construction While not properly classed a “materia” sandwich construction has special characteristics and is very important to aircraft design. A structural sandwich is composed of two face sheets sonded to and separated by a core (Fig. 1426). face cos {| PA Foam core Fig. 1426 Sondwich constuction. sar542 Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach ‘The face sheets can be of any material, but are typically aluminum, fiberglass-epoxy, or graphite-epoxy. The core is usually an aluminum or phenolic honeycomb material for commercial and military aircraft, but various types of rigid foam are used as the core in some cases. Many home- built aircraft today are constructed of foam-core sandwich with fiberglass ‘composite skins. Seventy percent of the B-70s airframe was stainless-steel honeycomb sandwich, typically 2in, {5 em} thick. In a sandwich, the face sheets carry most of the tension and com- pression loads due to bending. The core carries most of the shear loads as well as the compression loads perpendicular tothe skin. As with compo- sites, joints and fittings are a problem with sandwich construction. Analysis of sandwich construction is discussed in [108] I MEEEX) Naoteriai Property Tables ‘Tables 14.3145 provide typical material properties for various metals, woods, and composites. Note that these are typical values only, and that I actual material properties for use in detail design should be obtained from the producer or from a specification document such as (100) For example, [100] contains 68 pages of design data on 2024 aluminum alone, covering many different forms, heat treatments, tempering, gauges, | etc. The values for 2024 in Table 143 are merely typical, suitable for rough estimates and student design projects. 1 |EERZADJ Structural-Analysis Fundamentals Aircraft conceptual designers don't normally do the structural analysis for their designs, but they are responsible for the overall vehicle configur- ation including the major structural arrangement. Structure is critically important for the success of an airplane development project, and all designers—conceptual or detail—should be familiar with the methods of structural design and analysis. The following sections will introduce the key equations for structural analysis of aircraft components. Derivations will not be presented as they are available in many references, such as (98, 99, 108] Properties of Sections A number of geometric properties of cross sections are repeatedly used 1 in structural calculations. Three of the most important—centroid, moment of inertia, and radius of gyration—are discussed next. Note that the cross sections of interest in tension and compression calculations are