Design and Analysis of aircraft Wing
G Sai Rahul1, A Dilip2 ,Rajeev Raushan3
K L University, Green Fields, Vaddeswaram, Guntur District, A.P, INDIA, 522502
Department of Mechanical Engineering, III/IV B.Tech graduated Students
Abstract:
This deals with bending Finite Element
Analysis of the aircraft wing using
commercial software ANSYS. An aircraft
wing is made of composite with fibre
angles in each ply aligned in different
direction. Various air foil thickness and
ply angles were considered to study the
effect of bending-torsion decoupling. The
laminate characteristics are usually
calculated using the number of layer,
stacking sequence, geometric and
mechanical properties. A finite number of
layers can be combined to form so many
laminates. The only restriction that is
imposed on the laminate as an element of
composite structure concerns its total
thickness which is assumed to be much
smaller than the other dimensions of the
structure.
Aircraft wing model as per the plan should
be made in FEA and the model is
subjected to various loading. The loading
given by the self-weight or due to
acceleration due to gravity was discussed
and the deflection over here should be
calculated. The wing model is severely
affected by the loads on along wing
direction, across wing direction, vertical
direction.NACA 2412 airfoil was taken for
designing wing. FLUENT was used for
computational fluid dynamic analysis to
determine the lift and drag for wing during
zero degreed flaps and angled flaps.
Keywords: Finite Element Analysis,
airfoil, composite structure, Fluent
Introduction:
This popularity of air transport has led to
many new inventions and research to
developed faster and more economical
planes. An air foil is a cross-section of
wing of the plane. Its main job is to
provide lift to an aeroplane during take-off
and while in flight. But, it has also a side
effect called Drag which opposes the
motion of the aeroplane. The amount of lift
needed by a plane depends on the purpose
for which it is to be used. Heavier planes
require more lift while lighter planes
require less lift than the heavier ones.
Thus, depending upon the use of
aeroplane, air foil section is determined.
Lift force also determines the vertical
acceleration of the plane which in turns
depends on the horizontal velocity of the
plane. Thus, determining the coefficient of
lift one can calculate the lift force and
knowing the lift force and required vertical
acceleration one can determine the
required horizontal velocity.
Flaps are devices used to alter the lift
characteristics of a wing and are mounted
on the trailing edges of the wings of
a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed at
which the aircraft can be safely flown and
to increase the angle of descent for
landing. They do this by lowering the
stall and increasing the drag. Flaps shorten
take-off and landing distances. Extending
flaps increases the camber or curvature of
the wing, raising the maximum lift
coefficient — the lift a wing can generate.
This allows the aircraft to generate as
much lift, but at a lower speed, reducing
the stalling speed of the aircraft, or the
minimum speed at which the aircraft will
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maintain flight. Extending flaps
increases drag, which can be beneficial
during approach and landing, because it
slows the aircraft. On some aircraft, a
useful side effect of flap deployment is a
decrease in aircraft pitch angle which
lowers the nose thereby improving the
pilot's view of the runway over the nose of
the aircraft during landing. However the
flaps may also cause pitch-up depending
on the type of flap and the location of the
wing.
Aerospace industry is increasingly relying
on advanced numerical flow simulation
tools in the early aircraft design phase.
Today, computational fluid dynamics has
matured to a point where it is widely
accepted as an essential, complementary
analysis tool to wind tunnel experiments
and flight tests. Navier–Stokes methods
have matured from specialized research
techniques to practical engineering tools
for a vast number of industrial problems
on a routine basis .Due to the high
computational effort required for flow
simulations around realistic 3D
configurations, industrial computational
fluid dynamics tools are rather used for
analysis and assessment of given
geometries than for shape design and
optimization. However, within the next
few years numerical shape optimization
will play a strategic role for future aircraft
design.
AIRFOIL:
One of the most spectacular things to view
is the structure and the body of an aircraft.
Its concept has always been scintillating
and technical. All of us do know that only
when an object overcomes the earth’s
natural gravitational pull, it tends to fly.
The wing of an aircraft helps in gliding it
through the wind and also in its landing
and take-off. The shape of such an
important component of the aircraft makes
a lot of impact on its movements. This
shape is what is called an aerofoil. An
airfoil-shaped body moved through
a fluid produces an aerodynamic force.
The component of this force
perpendicular to the direction of motion is
called lift. The lift on an airfoil is primarily
the result of its angle of attack and shape.
When oriented at a suitable angle, the
airfoil deflects the oncoming resulting in a
force on the airfoil in the direction
opposite to the deflection. This force is
known as aerodynamic force and can be
resolved into two components
lift and drag. Most foil shapes require a
positive angle of attack to generate lift,
but cambered airfoils can generate lift at
zero angle of attack. This turning of the air
in the vicinity of the airfoil creates
curved streamlines, resulting in lower
pressure on one side and higher pressure
on the other. This pressure difference is
accompanied by a velocity difference,
via Bernoulli's principle, so the resulting
flow field about the airfoil has a higher
average velocity on the upper surface than
on the lower surface. The lift force can be
related directly to the average top/bottom
velocity difference.
NACA (National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics) 2412 airfoil was as the
profile to generate the wing. This NACA
2412 airfoil has Max thickness 12% at
30% chord, Max camber 2% at 40% chord
and angle of attack (α) is 7.25°.Reynolds
number ranging from the 50,000 for this
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foil. Chord is the extend from leading edge
to trailing edge of the wing and camber is
Points halfway between chord and upper
wing surface whereas angle of attack is
Angle between direction of airflow and the
chord.
Representation of the NACA 2412 airfoil
Graph of coefficient of lift to drag for the
NACA 2412 airfoil
Parts of wing and wing structure:
An aileron is a hinged flight control
surface usually forming part of the trailing
edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft.
Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the
leading edge of the wings of fixed-
wing aircraft, stringer is also known as the
stiffener used to hold and stiff the sheet
metal of the wing the internal ribs. Ribs
are the internal foiled shape braces for
wing.Inaddition to this wings consists of
the fuel tank. Airbus 320 aircrafts fuel
capacity is 23858 litres of this half was
equally stored in two wing for maintaining
equilibrium in the aircraft structure and
remaining half was stored in the aircraft
fuselage in rear cases little amount of fuel
can be stored in tail section.
Parts of wing and wing structure
Design of the wing:
Wing design was made by using the
NACA profile using the wingspan of 60m,
which is for BOEING 747. By considering
the real-time profile of airfoil its co-
ordinates were formed and they were
imported to SOLIDWORKS by MACROS
importing format. Then required
dimensioned aircraft wing was formed by
using that profile, and completed model
was imported to ANSYS V12.1 FLUENT
for analysis of model. Initially wingspan
was calculated and profiles were scaled on
the guide curve from leading edge to
trailing edge starting from fuselage
intersection to the ailerons tip. And then
by lofting this wing was sheeted, so
internal ribs, stringers, flaps were designed
and assembled for this wing section.
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Wingspan with profiles and guide curve
Lofted wing with the flap section
assembled
Section and ribs viewed in the wing
MESHING OF MODEL:
Mesh generation is the practice of
generating a polygonal or polyhedral mesh
that approximates a geometric domain.
The term "grid generation" is often used
interchangeably. Typical uses are for
rendering to a computer screen or for
physical simulation such as finite element
analysis or computational fluid dynamics.
Three-dimensional meshes created
for finite element analysis need to consist
of tetrahedral, pyramids, prisms or hexahe
dra. Those used for the finite volume
method can consist of arbitrary polyhedral.
Those used for finite difference
methods usually need to consist of
piecewise structured arrays of hexahedra
known as multi-block structured meshes.
A mesh is otherwise a discretization of a
domain existing in one, two or three
dimensions.
Meshing including with the boundary
generated
Analysis:
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
provides a qualitative (and sometimes even
quantitative) prediction of fluid flows by
means of mathematical modelling (partial
differential equations), numerical methods
(discretization and solution
techniques).software tools (solvers, pre-
and post-processing utilities) CFD enables
scientists and engineers to perform
‘numerical experiments’ (i.e. computer
simulations) in a ‘virtual flow laboratory’.
CFD gives an insight into flow patterns
that are difficult, expensive or impossible
to study using traditional (experimental)
techniques
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The results of a CFD simulation are never Velocity at the trailing and leading edges
100% reliable because the input data may of wing:
involve too much guessing or imprecision
the mathematical model of the problem at
hand may be inadequate the accuracy of
the results is limited by the available
computing power.

CFD Analysis on wing with zero degree

flaps:
Velocity plot
Take-off is the phase of flight in which an
aircraft goes through a transition from
moving along the ground (taxiing) to
flying in the air, usually starting on a Residual details:
runway. Usually the engines are run at full
power during take-off. Following the taxi
motion, the aircraft stops at the starting
line of the runway. So during taxing flaps
and spoilers of aircraft are retracted back
or at zero degree.

Residual plot

Lift obtained by this was 242980N with

coefficient of lift (Cl) 5.267

Drag obtained was 19847.646N with Drag

Wing with flaps zero degree coefficient (Cd) 0.4302

Pressure distribution over wing:

CFD Analysis on wing when flaps

retrieved:

Following take-off, the aircraft has to

climb to a certain altitude (typically 30,000
ft or 10 km) before it can cruise at this
altitude in a safe and economic way. A
climb is carried out by increasing the lift of
wings supporting the aircraft until their
lifting force exceeds the weight of the
Pressure plot aircraft. Once this occurs, the aircraft will

5
climb to a higher altitude until the lifting
force and weight are again in balance. The
increase in lift may be accomplished by
increasing the angle of attack of the wings,
by increasing the thrust of the engines to
increase speed (thereby increasing lift), by
increasing the surface area or shape of the
wing to produce greater lift, or by some
combination of these techniques, so flaps
are increased at low air craft speeds for Velocity plot
lift. In most cases, engine thrust and angle
of attack are simultaneously increased to
produce a climb. Landing is the last part of
a flight, where the aircraft returns to the Residual details:
ground. And during landing aircraft has to
reach a minimum speed of 180 nautical
miles per hour or 333.36kmph so flaps and
spoilers are used here to increase the drag
and to land on short runways.

Residual plot

Lift obtained by this was -115245.51N

Wing with flaps retrieved with coefficient of lift (Cl) -188

Drag obtained was 817277.77N with Drag

coefficient (Cd) 133.43

Pressure distribution over wing:

Conclusion:
So by analysing both the zero angled and
inclined or retrieved flapped wings it was
concluded that wing with zero degreed
flaps acts normal by producing positive
coefficient of lift and sufficient drag.
But for flaps retrieved wing the coefficient
Pressure plot of drag was more and increasing than lift
while iterating. Therefore flaps are used to
increase drag while landing. And in
Velocity at the trailing and leading edges addition to that flaps also used to produce
of wing: lift during take-off to low speeds (on short
runways these were used during take-off).

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