Abstract
The lifting system of a PrandtlPlane is a box in the front view, made of two swept wings set at different heights and of vertical wings at their tips; one or two fins connect the rear wing to the upper fuselage, and the front wing is clamped to the same; thus, the wing system is over-constrained, and the structural design becomes a challenge. In this paper, starting from a preliminary solution, an optimization procedure is applied to minimize the overall weight with the constraints of maximum allowable stress, stability of compressed structures, minimum aileron effectiveness, aeroelastic effects on load distribution and flutter. The system is approximated as beams with 54 elements. Two models of the wing section are presented: in the first, the wing section is approximated with three parameters (skin thickness, spar web thickness and stringer section total area) for a total of 162 degrees of freedom; in the second one, two other parameters are adjoined in any section (areas of two spar flanges) with a total of 270 d.o.f. According to the first model, the overall weight, including the fins, is about 17.5% of the maximum takeoff weight, while, in the second one, it is reduced to 15.8%.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
MSC Nastran User’s Manual. MSC Software Corporation
Bindolino, G.: Determinazione delle forze aerodinamiche per la soluzione di problemi aeroelastici di configurazioni complesse in campo subsonico. Master’s thesis, Politecnico di Milano (1984)
Bindolino, G., Ghiringhelli, G., Ricci, S., Terraneo, M.: Multilevel structural optimization for preliminary wing-box weight estimation. J. Aircr. 47, 475–489 (2010)
Bruhn, E.F.: Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicles Structures. Jacobs Publishing, Phoenix (1973)
Dal Canto, D.: Progetto preliminare del cassone alare di un velivolo di tipo Prandtl-Plane mediante l’applicazione di un ottimizzatore multilivello. Master’s thesis, Università di Pisa (2009)
Frediani, A.: The Prandtl Wing. In: Lecture series on Innovative Configuration and Advanced Concepts for Future Civil Aircraft (2005)
Frediani, A., Cipolla, V., Rizzo, E.: The PrandtlPlane configuration: overview on possible applications to civil aviation. In: Buttazzo, G., Frediani, A. (eds.) Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering II: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design. Springer, Berlin (2012)
Frediani, A., Divoux, N.: The lifting system of a PrandtlPlane, Part 2: Preliminary study on flutter characteristics. In: Buttazzo, G., Frediani, A. (eds.) Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering II: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design. Springer, Berlin (2012)
Frediani, A., Quattrone, F., Contini, F.: The Lifting System of a PrandtlPlane; Part 3: Structures Made in Composites. In: Buttazzo, G., Frediani, A. (eds.) Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering II: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design. Springer, Berlin (2012)
Van Ginneken, D.A.J.: Automatic control surface design & sizing for the PrandtlPlane. Master’s thesis, Delft University of Technology (2009)
Piasentin, F.: Progetto preliminare del cassone alare di un velivolo in fase di avanprogetto mediante ottimizzatore multilivello. Master’s thesis, Politecnico di Milano (2003)
Roskam, J.: Airplane Design: Preliminary Sizing of Airplanes. DAR Corporation (1997)
Torenbeek, E.: Synthesis of Subsonic Airplane Design. Delft University Press, Delft (1972)
Torenbeek, E.: Development and application of a comprehensive, design-senstive weight prediction method for wing structures of transport category aircraft. Technical report, Delft University of Technology (1992)
Van Ginneken, D.A.J., Voskuijl, M., Van Tooren, A., Frediani, A.: Automatic control surface design & sizing for the prandtlplane. In: AIAA Conference in Orlando (USA) (2010)
Voskuijl, M., De Klerk, J., Van Ginneken, D.A.J.: Flight mechanics modeling of the Prandtl plane for conceptual and preliminary design. In: Buttazzo, G., Frediani, A. (eds.) Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering II: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design. Springer, Berlin (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dal Canto, D., Frediani, A., Ghiringhelli, G.L., Terraneo, M. (2012). The Lifting System of a PrandtlPlane, Part 1: Design and Analysis of a Light Alloy Structural Solution. In: Buttazzo, G., Frediani, A. (eds) Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering: Mathematical Challenges for Aerospace Design. Springer Optimization and Its Applications(), vol 66. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2435-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2435-2_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-2434-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-2435-2
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)