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A parametric aircraft fuselage model for preliminary sizing and crashworthiness applications

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Abstract

The aircraft design process generally comprises three consecutive phases: conceptual, preliminary and detailed design phase. In the conceptual design phase a basis aircraft layout is defined using multidisciplinary analysis procedures. For the structural layout, however, the preliminary design phase is of particular interest as more detailed calculations are introduced to enhance the basic design of the primary structure. Up to date, semi-analytical methods are widely used in this design stage to estimate the structural mass. Although these methods lead to adequate results for the major aircraft components of standard configurations, the evaluation of new configurations (e.g., box wing, blended wing body) or specific structural components with complex loading conditions (e.g., center wing box) is very challenging and demands higher fidelity approaches based on Finite Elements (FE). To accelerate FE model generation in a multidisciplinary design environment, automated processes based on a parametric model description have been introduced. To easily couple in- and output of different tools, a standardized data format—CPACS (Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema)—is used. The versatile structural description in CPACS, the implementation in model generation tools, but also current limitations and future enhancements will be discussed. Recent development on the progress of numerical process chains for structural sizing and crashworthiness applications on solid ground and on water (ditching) are presented in this paper.

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Notes

  1. V/STOL = Vertical and/or Short Take-Off and Landing.

  2. uID = unique Identifier. uIDs are used to distinguish between individual entries which have been defined previously.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Maria Inês Costa Cadilha from the University of Lisbon and gratefully acknowledge her contribution to the numerical simulations of aircraft ditching of generic transport aircraft. The developments and results presented in this paper were partly accomplished in: (1) the framework of the 4th aeronautical research program of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under grant 20W0903C, as part of the LuFo-IV project AZIMUT, (2) the 7th framework program of the European Commission under grant FP7-266172, as part of the SMAES project.

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  1. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Structures and Design (BT), Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    D. B. Schwinn, D. Kohlgrüber, J. Scherer & M. H. Siemann

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  1. D. B. Schwinn
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  2. D. Kohlgrüber
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  3. J. Scherer
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Correspondence to D. B. Schwinn.

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This paper is based on a presentation at the German Aerospace Congress, September 16-18, 2014, Augsburg, Germany.

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Schwinn, D.B., Kohlgrüber, D., Scherer, J. et al. A parametric aircraft fuselage model for preliminary sizing and crashworthiness applications. CEAS Aeronaut J 7, 357–372 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-016-0193-4

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