Introduction to Aerospace Engineering

Lecture slides

Challenge the future 1

Aircraft & spacecraft loads
Translating loads to stresses
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
29-11-2011

Delft
University of
Technology

Challenge the future

Learning objectives
Student should be able to…

• Calculate the stresses in

• Fuselage shell due to pressurization (case I)
• Fuselage shells due to applied torsional load (case II)
• Wing spars due to applied bending loads (case III)

Aircraft loads 2 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• Revisit stresses in pressure vessel

∆p
pR pR
σ circ = ; σ = R
t long 2t dϕ

• And the Hooke’s law for plane

stress or biaxial stress condition
σ circ σ long
ε circ = −ν
∆p

E E σlong
Fy

σ long σ circ
ε long = −ν
E E

Aircraft loads 3 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• With σcirc =2σlong this is

σ circ  ν
ε circ = 1 − 
E  2
σ circ  1 
ε long =  − ν 
E 2 

• For a metallic pressure vessel with ν ≈ 0.3 this means that

εcirc =4.25 εlong

Aircraft loads 4 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• For a sphere under pressure

pR
σ1 = σ 2 =
2t

• The strain in a sphere is equal in all directions

pR 1
ε sphere = (1 −ν )
2t E

Aircraft loads 5 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• What ratio tsphere/tcylinder is needed to connect cylinder to sphere in a

pressure vessel?

• Avoid discontinuities in εcirc to avoid these deformation mismatches

• Thus εcirc = εsphere !

Aircraft loads 6 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• Derivation
ε cylinder = ε sphere
pR 1  ν  pRsphere 1
cylinder
1 −  = (1 −ν )
t E  2  2t E
cylinder sphere
• Thus

R
sphere
=
2t
sphere
(1 −ν 2 ) = 1
R
cylinder
t
cylinder
(1 −ν )

• With Rcylinder = Rsphere this means tsphere ≈ 0.4 tcylinder

Aircraft loads 7 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• Aircraft pressure cabin

• Role frames & stringers (5 - 10%)
• Other disturbances (doublers around cut-outs)

• Fracture of fuselage could be disastrous: ‘exploding balloon’

• No limit load (formal definition: once in the lifetime of the aircraft),
“limit” load occurs every flight during pressurization of the cabin
⇒ safety factor is 2

Aircraft loads 8 | 32
Fuselage structure
Pressurization (case I)

• Aircraft pressure cabin

• Design pressure differential pd = pcabin - ph
• Cabin altitude: pcabin related to altitude of 2400 - 3000 m

• Safety factor j=2: pult = 2 pd = 2(pcabin - ph)

• Example
• Pressure differential is 45 kPa
• Aircraft altitude of h =9050 m ⇒ cabin altitude of 2440 m
• Aircraft altitude of h =10350 m ⇒ cabin altitude of 3050 m

Aircraft loads 9 | 32
Fuselage structure
Torsional loading (case II)

• The axial stresses in a tube under torsion

Aircraft loads 10 | 32
Fuselage structure
Torsional loading (case II) F1

• Function of cylinder against torsional loading

d1
• Rectangular shape
d2
• Deforms like
F2
M1

• Equilibrium if F1d1 = F2d2 = Fndn

⇒ M1 = M2 = MT
M2

Aircraft loads 11 | 32
Fuselage structure
Torsional loading (case II)
MT
• Torsion causes shear stress & strain
γ
τ
γ=
G
• Equilibrium: τoutside = τcross section MT

Aircraft loads 12 | 32
Fuselage structure
Torsional loading (case II)
MT
• Torsion causes shear stress
γ
τ
γ=
G
• Equilibrium: τoutside = τcross section MT

• Torsional moment
M = τ 2π r t r = 2τπ r 2t
T
circumference area
circle circle
τ
• Define q = τ t ⇒ MT = 2qA

Aircraft loads 13 | 32
Fuselage & wing structure
Torsional loading (case II)

• Thin walled box, stringers not loaded, torsion moment MT

• Moment around an arbitrary point: q ds a = ∆M

T

• with a ds = 2∆A
M
• All ‘fractions’ together: M = 2qA q= T
T 2A

Aircraft loads 14 | 32
Fuselage & wing structure
Torsional loading (case II)

• For a thin walled closed box (enclosed area A) the shear flow is
M
q= T
2A
enclosed area ≡ A
• All cross sections
have the same enclosed area ≡ A
shear-flow q
• A torsion box does
not need to have a enclosed area ≡ A
circular cross section
enclosed area ≡ A

Aircraft loads 15 | 32
Fuselage & wing structure
Torsional loading (case II)

• The torsion box will not “function” at a cut-out

• A stiff frame with rigid corners around the cut-out is needed

Aircraft loads 16 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Consider elementary spar

• Diamond shaped deformation is resisted
by sheets
• Frame exercises a shear stress on the sheets
• As reaction: sheets exercise shear stress on the frame

• Assumption: bars of frame very stiff,

no deformation

• Without sheets: Frame is not functioning

Aircraft loads 17 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• If frame functions, sheets in equilibrium

• High forces: pleat formation

• However: Structure still functions !

• Resistance to shear is the resistance to tension and compression

under 45 degrees. Relationship: E, ν, G

Aircraft loads 18 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Break down the elements ⇒ book keeping

F1x

F1y F2x F2y

• Global
• Horizontal equilibrium: F - F1x - F2x = 0
• Vertical equilibrium: F1y - F2y = 0
• Moment equilibrium: F h + F1y w = 0
• Local
• Equilibrium in elements …

Aircraft loads 19 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Break down the elements ⇒ book keeping

• For shear there is physically no difference but we need a sign

convention

_ +
Aircraft loads 20 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• In bending, the function of spar webs (shear) is essential! The

webs have to be supported on the upper and lower side by caps in
order to realize equilibrium
• webs transfer (external) transverse forces into shear-flows
• caps transfer shear-flows in normal forces

Aircraft loads 21 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Global equilibrium (always check!)

• Horizontal: N −N =0 √
U L
4 4

• Vertical: F +F +F −q h =0 √
1 2 3 3

• Moment:
4
(
N h− F l +l +l − F l +l −Fl = 0 √
U 1 1 2 3
) 2
( 2 3
) 3 3

Aircraft loads 22 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Web plate 1 and upper and lower cap 1

• Equilibrium of forces in cap 1

F −q h =0
1 1

F
N =ql = 1
l
U
2
11 h 1

F
N =ql = 1
l
L
2
11 h 1

• q1 is shear flow in web plate 1

Aircraft loads 23 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Web plate 2 and upper and lower cap 2

• Equilibrium of forces in cap 2

F = q h−q h = q h−F
2 2 1 2 1

F F +F
N = N +q l = 1
l + 1 2
l
U
3
U
2
2 2 h 1 h 2

F F +F
N = ... = 1
l + 1 2
l
L
3 h 1 h 2

Aircraft loads 24 | 32
 Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Web plate 3 and upper and lower cap 3

• Equilibrium of forces in cap 3

F = q h−q h = q h−F −F
3 3 2 3 1 2

N = N +q l
U U 3 3
4 3

F F +F F +F +F
= 1
l + 1 2
l + 1 2 3
l
h 1 h h3 2

F F +F F +F +F
N = ... = l +
1 1 2
l + 1 2 3
l
L
4 h 1 h 2 h 3

Aircraft loads 25 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

D
• Shear flow in the webs: qn =
n

h
n
• Transverse force building up: Dn = F1 + F2 + ... + Fn = ∑F
1
n

Aircraft loads 26 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

D
• Shear flow in the webs: qn =
n

h
n
• Transverse force building up: Dn = F1 + F2 + ... + Fn = ∑F
1
n

1 m
• Normal force in the caps at the location of stringers: N = ∑ D l
m +1 h n =1 n n

Next
slide

• What about normal forces in the caps between the stringers?

Aircraft loads 27 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• Equilibrium in A:

( )
D D
N −N −q x =0 N = 2
l −x + 1
l
U U 2
3 x
U
x h 2 h 1

• Equilibrium in B:

( ) ( l − x) + l
D D
N − N −q l −x =0 N = 2 1
U
x
U
2
2 2 U
x h 2 h 1

• Normal force increases linearly from outboard to inboard !

Aircraft loads 28 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• The bending moment at location x in the spar is:

N h ≡ M = D l − x + Dl
U
x
x 2
( 2
) 11

• We see that that for l2

dM
x
= −D
dx 2

• This is valid on every location x on the spar:

dM
x
= −D
dx x

Aircraft loads 29 | 32
Wing structure
Bending of wing spar

• External forces Fn

• Transverse shear forces known at

every location
n
D
q = n D = ∑F
n n
n h 1

• Normal forces in caps known at

every location
M m
N= M = ∑D l
h n +1 n n
n

Aircraft loads 30 | 32
Wing structure
Lift, engine and fuselage weight

• Shear stress in webs

q D
τx = x
= x

t ht
x x

• Normal stress in spar caps

N M
σx = ± x
=± x

A hA
x x

• In a spar hAx is called the moment of resistance (W)

Aircraft loads 31 | 32
Summary
Loads to stresses

• Three cases studied

• Fuselage shell due to pressurization
• Fuselage shells due to applied torsional load
• Wing spars due to applied bending loads

Aircraft loads 32 | 32