Introduction to Aerospace Engineering

AER 1110
Airplane Structure System
Mohammed Khalil Ibrahim, Ph.D.
Professor
Aerospace Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Cairo University
mkhalil@cu.edu.eg

January 2 , 2023
Contents
• Introduction
• Functional Requirements of the airplane structure
• Type of Structural loads
• Forces
• Effect of Forces on structure
• Material Characteristics
• The V−n diagram
• Structure elements
• Major Structure Components
• Historical development of airplane structure
Introduction
• What is airplane structure?
• Like a skeleton – features:
• Many elements (bones)
• Several functions
• Coherence
• Joints
• Different materials
Functional Requirements of the airplane
structure

• Framework to attach other systems

Design Loads
• Air loads: lift, drag, gusts
• Acoustic loads
• Thermal loads
• Landing loads: touchdown, arresting
• Take-off loads: runway taxi, catapult, assisted (e.g. jet or rocket)
take-off
• Power plant loads: thrust, engine torque, gyroscopic effects
• Special loads: towing, refueling, pressurization, cargo, weapons
recoil.
Static Strength
Static strength includes the requirement that the structure must
support:
1. Structural limit loads, the largest loads likely to be
encountered in practice during the lifetime of the structure,
without permanent, detrimental deformation; and,
2. The ultimate loads, defined as the limit loads times a factor of
safety, for at least three seconds without catastrophic failure
or instability.
Stiffness and Flutter
Stiffness and flutter requirements refer to the fact that an aircraft
must be free of excessive vibration and buffet during normal
operations. Aerodynamic loads are strongly influenced by wing
twisting and bending deflections. The computation and
measurement of wing and tail torsional stiffness is an important
part of a discipline called aeroelasticity.

Wing Flexibility
Stiffness and Flutter

Aeroelasticity-Swept wing aerodynamic loading changes because the

structure is flexible. This figure shows the differences between the
aerodynamic forces calculated on a rigid swept wing compared to the
forces on the same wing when it is flexible. The difference is due to the
wing deformation that changes the local angle of attack.
Durability
Durability, includes resistance to fatigue, cracks, corrosion and
foreign object impact. Fatigue is a failure mode for a structure.
Fatigue is related to repeated, cyclic loading that causes structural
cracks to grow to a “critical” size at which point they propagate
quickly to break the structure. Fatigue, corrosion and impact
resistance are all related strongly to the loads, the environment and
the materials selected.

Fatigue Test Bird Strikes

Damage Tolerance and Life Safe
Despite our best efforts, structural components can still fail
unexpectedly in flight. Damage tolerance is the ability to resist
catastrophic failure (as opposed to a local component failure) due
to cracking or other damage.
Fail safety
Fail safety is related to damage tolerance; it is a design
requirement that ensures that the structure is resistant to failure.
This is also called “damage tolerance.” This just means that it
takes more than the failure of a single part to bring the airplane
out of the sky.

Safe Life Fail Safe

Which option is lighter?
Crashworthiness
Crashworthiness is next on the wheel. Crash worthy designs
protect occupants by absorbing large amounts of energy to
cushion passengers. Protecting fuel tanks from rupture is also
important and can be done by using breakaway nacelle or flap
attachments or by designing the keel structure to absorb vertical
impact and scraping action from a wheels-up emergency landing.
Producibility, Maintainability and
inspectability
Producibility is defined as the “ease of manufacturing an
item (or a group of items) in large enough quantities.”
Producibility depends strongly on design features that
enable economical fabrication, assembly, and inspection or
testing.

Maintainability and inspectability are constraints that

affect the layout or topology of the structure. For instance,
the requirements for access for inspection may place a
removable cover in a location that the designer would rather
not have, all other things being equal. Similarly, repairability
requires that the materials chosen are easily repaired if
damaged. If a component is to be replaced, it must be easy
to access and easy to remove and replace.
Environmental effects
Environmental effects are particularly important when choosing
materials. For instance, Navy aircraft operate in a salt water
environment and all aircraft operate with moisture present and
under a wide variety of temperature conditions on the ground,
ranging from North Africa to Alaska. Add in the possibility of bird
strikes or ingestion during take-off and landing, hail, lightning
and other possible potentially damaging events and the designer
has a wide range of constraints placed on the design.
Safe Life versus Fail Safe Strategies
• Safe Life means that the stresses in a component are so low that fatigue
failure is not possible over the anticipated life of the airplane, or at least
until some period has passed after which a part replacement is required.

• Fail Safe means that the structure has alternative load paths so that no
single failure will be hazardous to the aircraft. This can be achieved by
designing so that no one component carries a large part of a load.

Safe Life Fail Safe

Which option is lighter?
Type of Structural loads
Type of Structural loads
Forces
• Point Load – A load acting on a point
• Stable pair – When forces are equal
• Unstable pair – When forces are not equal
• Stable combination – When opposite forces are balanced
• Universally distributed load – When the load is spread evenly
across a supporting member
 Forces

Point Load Stable pair Unstable pair Stable combination Universally distributed
load
The effects of force on a structure
• Compression – is when something is squeezed and can result
in crushing
• Tension – is when something is pulled and can result in
stretching
• Shear – is when something is cut or slides and results in sliding
or shearing
• Torsion – is when something is twisted
• Bend – is when something is bent and can be permanently
deformed
 The effects of force on a structure

Compression Tension Shear Torsion Bend

The effects of force on a structure

Column bucking Shell bucking

Material Characteristics

Stress-strain diagram comparing the behavior of composite and metals

Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• From the Figure

• the magnitude of the resultant force

is

• We introduce a new term, the load

factor n , defined as

• Hence
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• The airplane is moving in a circular path at velocity V∞ ; therefore the radial acceleration
is given by V∞2 / R . From Newton’s second law,

• Combining the above equation and solving for R , we have

• The angular velocity, denoted by ω ≡ d θ / dt , is called the turn rate and is given by V∞/ R
. Thus, from the above equation we have
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• For the maneuvering performance of an airplane, military or civil, it is
frequently advantageous to have the smallest possible R and the
largest possible ω. The above show that to obtain both a small turn
radius and a large turn rate, we want
1. The highest possible load factor (that is, the highest possible L / W ).
2. The lowest possible velocity.
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• Because L > W

• From Newton’s second law,

• Combining the above

equations and solving for R
give

• and because ω = V∞ / R ,
The pull-up maneuver
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• For The pull-down maneuver, we
can show that

The pull-down maneuver.

Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• High-performance fighter aircraft are designed to operate at high load factors—typically from 3 to
10. When n is large, then n + 1 ≈ n and n − 1 ≈ n ; then

• Let us work with these equations further. Because

• Then
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• Substituting, we obtain

• Define
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• Clearly R will be minimum and ω will be maximum when both CL and n are maximum. That is,

• There are some practical constraints on the preceding considerations. First, at low speeds, nmax is a
function of CL ,max itself because
Turning Flight and V-N Diagram
• Corner velocity

What is the load

factor at cruise?
Structure elements
• Ties: These resist tension or ‘pulling’ forces
• Struts: These resist compression or ‘squashing’ forces
• Beams: These resist ‘bending’ forces
• Webs: These resist ‘twisting’ and ‘tearing’ forces
• Shells: These carry/transmit distributed loads
Major Structure Components
• Fuselage
• Wings
• Empennage
• Landing Gear
• The Powerplant
 Fuselage

Truss-type fuselage structure

Monocoque (French for “single shell”)

Wing
Empennage

Empennage Structure of an airplane

Empennage

Empennage Structure of an airplane

Landing Gear
Airplanes with conventional landing gear are sometimes referred to as
tailwheel airplanes. When the third wheel is located on the nose, it is called
a nosewheel, and the design is referred to as a tricycle gear. A steerable
nosewheel or tailwheel permits the airplane to be controlled throughout all
operations while on the ground. Most aircraft are steered by moving the
rudder pedals, whether nosewheel or tailwheel. Additionally, some aircraft
are steered by differential braking.

tailwheel landing gear Nosewheel landing gear

Power Plant
The powerplant usually includes both the engine and the propeller. The
primary function of the engine is to provide the power to turn the propeller. It
also generates electrical power, provides a vacuum source for some fight
instruments, and in most single-engine airplanes, provides a source of heat
for the pilot and passengers. The engine is covered by a cowling, or a
nacelle, which are both types of covered housings. The purpose of the
cowling or nacelle
Power Plant - Wing Pod Mount
• Commonly use on commercial airplane since fuel is carry on wing
• Less noise
• CLmax is not as good as fuselage mount
• Yawing moment effect
• Ground clearance limitation higher gear strut
Aircraft Structure
Historical development of airplane
structure
1903-1920. Frame structures, unstressed skin

Flyer 1903, Wright brothers, USA

Take-off mass 283 kg, wingspan 12 m
Historical development of airplane
structure
1920-1930. Monoplanes and corrugated skin introduced

Introduced Tupolev TB-3, Soviet Union, 1932Take-off mass 19500 kg,

wingspan 39.5 m
 Historical development of airplane
structure
1930-1940. Aluminium extensively used, stressed skin. Method
of reduction coefficients developed (1932).

Messerschmitt Bf.109, Germany, 1935Take-off mass 3 375 kg,max. speed 720 km/h
Historical development of airplane
structure
1940-1950. Sweptback wings, thick stressed skin, thin-walled
beam structure

MiG-15, Soviet Union, 1949Take-off mass 4 917 kg, wingspan 10 m

Historical development of airplane
structure
1950-1960. Triangle wings, specific passenger aircraft. Rise of
fatigue, vibration and aeroelasticity problems

De Havilland DH.106 Comet, Great Britain, 1949 Take-off mass 73.5 ton, wingspan 35 m
 Historical development of airplane
structure
1960-1970. Variable sweep wings, new heat-resistant materials.
Rise of passenger fleet

MiG-23, Soviet Union, 1967Take-off mass 20 100 kg, max. speed 2500 km/h49
 Historical development of airplane
structure
1970-1980. Wide-body passenger aircraftBoeing

Aircraft Boeing 747, USA, 1969Take-off mass 340.2 ton, wingspan 59.6 m50
Historical development of airplane
structure
1980-1990. Extra-large cargo aircraft

Antonov 124, USSR, 1982 Take-off mass 402 ton, payload 150 ton, wingspan 73.3 m
 Historical development of airplane
structure
1990-nowadays. Wide use of new materials (composite
materials, titanium alloys)

Boeing 787 Dreamliner, USA, 2009Take-off mass 245 ton, wingspan 60 m