STRUCTURAL IDEALISATION

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SUGGESTED READINGS

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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This Lecture (Module 6):
 Familiarisation with the functions of various structural components in an aircraft;
 Familiarisation with simplifying complex wing structure into an idealised structure for stress
analysis purposes;

Next lecture (Module 7):

 Impact of idealisation on bending of beam cross section;
 Impact of idealisation on shear flow and its distribution within the beam cross section;
 Impact of idealisation on torsion of beam cross section;
NOTE TO THE STUDENTS

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 You are required to read the following paper before attending this lecture;
 Note that this document is uploaded LMS;

Odeh Dababneh, Altan Kayran, (2014) "Design, analysis and optimization of thin walled semi-
monocoque wing structures using different structural idealization in the preliminary design
phase", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 5 Issue: 3, pp.214-226,
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSI-12-2013-0050
OVERVIEW

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LIFT LOADS

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 Lift is generated by producing a higher pressure below the wing than above it.
 Higher speed airflow above wing than below (streamlines closer together).
Lift

• Streamlines around an aerofoil.
(Above)
• Pressure Distribution around an
aerofoil. (Below)
• Resultant lift force (red arrow) acts through
centre of pressure (cop), normal to stream
• cop varies with α (angle of attack)
• Pitching Moment caused by unequal pressure
distribution around aerofoil.
 WING STRUCTURE

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 The Wing Digital Mock-Up of a Wing-Box
 Wingbox (Upper Cover removed)
 Primary wing structure

 Leading edge
 Fixed Leading Edge
 Slats
 Droop Nose
 Pylon (Engine) Attachments

 Trailing Edge
 Fixed Trailing Edge
 Spoilers
 Ailerons
 Flaps
 Wing Landing Gear Attachments
Digital Mock-Up of the A350
 Wingtip and Fairings
Wing
 8
WATCH
 WING-BOX

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 Carries the main structural
loads from the wing;
 Aerodynamic, inertial,
movables, fuel;
A380 Wingbox
 Closed-cell structure in Production
allowing resistance to
shear, torsion and tension
loads;
 Location of fuel tanks;
 Supports the landing gear
Wing in A380 Wingbox in
and engines, if they are Plan View Production
wing mounted.
WING LOADS

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 Wing Finite Element Model provides
Shear , Moment and Torsion
 WING COMPLEXITY (SPARS)

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Digital Mock-Up of Wingbox
(Upper Cover removed)
 Span-wise members that Exploded View of a generic Wing Spars
Track Can
carry shear loads;
Cut-Outs
 Fuel Tank Boundary;

Rib Post

 Provide mounting for WLG Fittings and Leading and

Trailing edge fittings.
WING COMPLEXITY (SPARS)

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 For larger aircraft, the spars are usually made
up from multiple sections;
 Sections are normally joined together with joint
Spar
plates and straps.
Boom
Straps

Web Joint
Plate

Spar

Digital Mock-Up of Wingbox (Upper Cover removed)

LOAD CARRYING MECHANISM OF SPARS

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 WING COMPLEXITY (RIBS)

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Manhole
Castellation

Stringer

Stiffener/
Crack stopper
View inside the Wing Box onto Rib looking Computer Rendering of Typical Large Rib
outboard

 Castellated edge allows the stringers to pass through rib feet to attached to the skin.
 Manholes allow access within the wingbox and movement of fuel.
 Stiffeners and crack stoppers are machined or bolted on to increase the strength of the overall structure.
LOAD CARRYING MECHANISM OF RIBS

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 WING COMPLEXITY (SKINS AND STRINGERS)

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Skin Skin
Panel Panel
 The skin may be Stringer
assembled from
multiple panels. Joints
between skin panels
are made at stringer
locations and reinforced Butt
with Butt Straps. Strap
 Stringers prevent skin Digital Mock-Up of Lower Wing Skins with
Stringers Stringer being installed on an A340 Wing
buckling in compression
and aid with bending
strength in tension.  Stringers are riveted onto the skin or integrally
 The Tension (Lower Cover) – Fatigue machined/formed onto the panel.
& Damage Tolerance  Access holes on the bottom skin allow entry into the
 Compression (Top Cover) - Strength wing-box for inspection of the internal structure and
cleaning of the fuel tanks.
LOAD CARRYING MECHANISM OF SKINS

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 ROOT JOINT

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 Where the wing attaches to
the centre wing box in the
fuselage;
 The cruciform and tri-form
fittings are used to attach
the upper and lower covers
respectively to the centre
wing box. Patent application
number: 20110089292;
 Upper and lower joint
fittings are used to attach
the spars.
WING TIP

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Wing Tip Navigation
Fence Lights

Wing
Tip
A320 Wing tip installed on end of Wing Illustration of Wing Tip Structure
at Broughton
 Rigid structure fixed to end of the wing-box;
 The structure is built in a similar way to the wing-box, with spars, ribs, stringers and skin forming
the structure;
 Contains the navigation and strobe lights.
WINGTIP (WINGLET & WING FENCE)

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Illustration of vortices
Wing Tip with blended Winglet installed
created at the Wing Tip
 A winglet or wing fence can be added Blended
to the end of the wingtip to reduce the Winglet
induced drag effect of the wing;
 A winglet generates more load than a
wing fence but design of the wing and
wingtip considers these extra forces;
 “Sharklet” is Airbus’s trade name for the
winglets being added to the A320
family.
WATCH

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WHAT IS THE POINT?

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 So far, we have been dealing with simple
structural components such as plates and
beams;
 Real life structures are complex and in order
to analyse them simplification must be made;
 The behaviour of the simplified/idealised
structure must be as close as that of the real
structure;
 Stresses/strains obtained from the idealised Sheet-stringer
Actual cross-section of
structure are representative of the real idealisation of the same
a thin-walled beam
complex structure. section
 We will further assume all
direct stresses are taken
by stringers and spar
IDEALISATION flanges. Skin takes all the

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shear

The variation of stress

(due to bending) over the
cross section is small Replace with booms
(concentration of area) at
Carrying direct and the midline of skin
As shear stresses
Stringers and spar flanges str sum
have small cross-sectional str ess i ing t
ing s c h
dimensions compared to ers ons e dir
’ cr tan ect
the complete section os
s s t ove
ec
tio r
n

Carrying direct
stress only
PANEL IDEALISATION

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 We would like to idealise the
panel into the following;
 Direct stress carrying booms
 Shear stress carrying skins
 All direct stresses are given
to booms;
 Note that the distribution of
stress has disappeared in
idealised structure though;
 As long as we can get the  By putting the thickness as zero, i.e.
extremes of stress, it is fine; , the direct stress carrying ability of
 What should be the area of skin vanishes ()
booms?
 25
PANEL IDEALISATION Direct stress carrying Actual thickness of
thickness of skin skin

 For idealisation; M1  M 2

b2 1 2
M 1   2t D    1   2  t D b b M 2  B1 1b
2 2 3

Taking moment about Taking moment about

the orange line the orange line
NOTES

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 If the cross-section does not include discrete stringers, or in the presence of a few
stringers with a total cross-sectional area far smaller than that of the thin walls, it is still
possible to construct a sheet-stringer model;
 In this case, an idealisation process is used to create “virtual stringers” that are assumed
to carry the axial stresses, whereas the thin-walled portions are assumed to carry only
shear stresses;
 Lumping of the axial stress-carrying portions of the thin-walled section into stringers
using previous slide is based on an a priori assumption for the axial stress distribution in
the section;
 If different distributions are considered that correspond to different loading conditions,
equivalent idealised areas must be recomputed for each case;
 Thus, it is useful to keep in mind that the idealisation process might be closely linked to
the type of analysis that is being performed.
 27
WING IDEALISATION AS DONE IN INDUSTRY (GLOBAL FEM)

View from the top

 Skin is modelled as shell elements
 Stringers as bar elements
 Spar caps as bar elements

View from the bottom

 28
GFEM OF A SECTION THROUGH THE WING

Spar cap

Upper skin

Rib Lower skin

Stringer
WATCH (WING IDEALISATION)

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 30
EXAMPLE

 Part of a wing section is in the form of the

two-cell box shown in figure, in which the
vertical spars are connected to the wing
skin through angle sections, all having a
cross-sectional area of 300mm2. Idealise
the section into an arrangement of direct
stress-carrying booms and shear-stress-
only-carrying panels suitable for resisting
bending moments in a vertical plane.
Position the booms at the spar/skin
junctions.
 The idealised structure with booms modelled as

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concentration of area located at the mid-plane of skins
SOLUTION

  What are the cross section areas?

From symmetry we know , ,

  Note that . When 1 is in tension 6 will be in equal

compression and vice versa due to bending
 The idealised structure with booms modelled as

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concentration of area located at the mid-plane of skins
SOLUTION

  What are the cross section areas?

 
𝑦 1 / 𝑦2  𝑦 5 / 𝑦 2  𝑦 3 / 𝑦 2
From symmetry we know , ,
 The idealised structure with booms modelled as

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concentration of area located at the mid-plane of skins
SOLUTION

  What are the cross section areas?

From symmetry we know , ,
 34
SECOND MOMENT OF AREA FOR IDEALISED SECTIONS

 We have n booms with areas B1, B2, … Bn the second moment of areas are;

 The next example demonstrates this.

EXAMPLE

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 Construct an idealised cross-section by evaluating the boom areas at points A, B, C, D, E and
F. Use the method based on the equilibrium of bending stresses. Moreover, calculate the
second moment of area of the idealised section.
SOLUTION

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The area of the booms for F=A, E=B and D=C based
on symmetry.
SOLUTION

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BA BB

BC

BD

BF BE
 38
EXAMPLE

 Construct the idealised section for the following airfoil. It can be assumed that stringers are
spaced at 50 mm interval and 45o in the straight and curved section , respectively. It can be
further assumed that the only loading is Mx. All dimensions are in milometers.

x
 39
SOLUTION

2 3 y 4 5 6
1

12
11 10 9 8 7

50  1.6
B6  B7   2  1  100 1.6  2  1  66.67mm 2
6 6
50 1.6
B3  B4  B5  B8  B9  B10  2  1  50 1.6  2  1  80mm 2
6 6
 40
SOLUTION
 The vertical distance between boom 1 and 2
(blue arrow in opposite figure) is as below; 2 3 y 4 5 6
1
2
y2  y1  50  50  14.65mm
2 x

 The length of chord from boom 1 to boom 2

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is a quarter of circumference of the semi 11 10 9 8 7
circle;
b1 2  0.25R  12.5
 Therefore, we have;
 2 
 50 
B2  B11 
50  1.6
 2  1  12.5  2  2  2   75.44mm 2
6 6  50 
 
 
 41
SOLUTION
 The length of chord from boom 1 to boom 12 is
half of the circumference of semi circle as 2 3 y 4 5 6
below; 1

b112  0.5R  25 x

12
11 10 9 8 7
 Therefore, we have;
 
 
25  2 12.5  2  50
B1  B12   2  1  2   70.87mm 2
6 6  2 
 50 
 2 
TUTORIAL 1

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 Idealise the box section into an arrangement of direct stress-carrying booms positioned at the
four corners and panels which are assumed to carry only shear stresses. Find the centroid
location of the idealised section and then calculate second moment of area for the idealised
section about x and y axis.
 43
SOLUTION
1 2

300 mm
4 3

500 mm
 44
SOLUTION
 To obtain the second moment of area, it is 1 2
essential to find the neutral axis location;

300 mm
 Taking moment about bottom skin, line 43;
4 4
y  Bi   Bi yi 
i 1 i 1

4000  300  3540  300 4 3

y  150mm
2   4000  3540
500 mm
 Taking moment about spar 14;
4 4
x  Bi   Bi xi 
i 1 i 1

2  3540  500
x  234.75mm
2   4000  3540
 45
SOLUTION
1 y 2

300 mm
I xx  2  4000 1502  2  3540 1502  339,300,000 mm 4 x
234.75

150
I yy  2  4000  234.752  2  3540   500  234.75
2

4 3
 938,992,042.5 mm 4

500 mm
I xy    234.75  150   4000    234.75    150   4000
  500  234.75  150   3540   500  234.75    150   3540 No need to calculate
as it is singly
0 symmetric
 46
Lecture 7
EFFECT OF IDEALISATION ON ANALYSIS OF OPEN AND
CLOSED SECTION BEAMS

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 Let’s remind ourselves of the bending equation;

 For Ixx, Iyy and Ixy it is essential to obtain the location of neutral axis;
 The position of the neutral axis is derived from the condition that the resultant load on the
beam cross section is zero;

 By concentrating the area for idealization, we are essentially manipulating the A and the
location of the centroid of the cross section.
 Note that we must use Ixx, Iyy and Ixy for the direct stress carrying section (see next example).
BENDING OF OPEN AND CLOSED SECTION BOOMS

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 The fuselage section is subjected to a bending moment of 100kNm applied in the vertical
plane of symmetry. If the section has been completely idealised into a combination of direct
stress-carrying booms and shear-stress-only-carrying panels, determine the direct stress in
each boom.
SOLUTION

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0 0 Axis of symmetry
0

Taking moment about 9

Taking moment about 9

SOLUTION

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540 mm=

  6 4
=1200-540

=-540+38
𝐼 𝑥𝑥 =∑ ∆𝐼 𝑥𝑥=1854×10 𝑚𝑚 =-540+38
EFFECT OF IDEALISATION ON SHEAR OF OPEN SECTION
BEAMS

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  Let’s remind ourselves of shear flow
formulation in an open beam; Stress system on element of a beam
Equilibrium of forces in ‫ ݖ‬direction

 Our formulation was based upon;

 Let’s re-write it as;

Equilibrium of forces in s direction

 If skin is fully effective in carrying the direct

stresses, we have ; 10

 If skin is fully effective in carrying shear

stresses only, then .
 SHEAR OF OPEN SECTION BEAMS

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 When we have booms the shear flow gets disturbed
but this is not reflected in the opposite equation!!!
 The beam carries shear forces Sx and
Sy applied at the shear centre;
 Let’s look at rth boom in the section;
 Shear forces impose direct stresses in
both booms and skins as well as
shear stresses in the skins;
 Writing equation of equilibrium for the
element.
SHEAR OF OPEN SECTION BEAMS

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The
  change in shear flow induced by a boom which itself is subjected to a
direct load
SHEAR OF OPEN SECTION BEAMS

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 Previous equation without idealisation;

 Shear flow equation after idealisation;

If at any distance s around the profile of the

section, n booms have been passed, the
shear flow at the point is given by this
equation (let’s see this in an example)
EXAMPLE

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 Calculate the shear flow distribution in the channel section produced by a vertical shear load
of 4.8kN acting through its shear center. Assume that the walls of the section are only
effective in resisting shear stresses, while the booms, each of area 300mm2, carry all the
direct stresses.
SOLUTION

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  Walls are only effective in shear means ;
I xy   xydA  0 Sx  0 tD  0
SOLUTION

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S y  48000 N
𝑞 12=𝑞𝑠+∆𝑞1=−6𝑁/𝑚𝑚   Outside of boom 1

Outside of boom 4
IMPORTANT NOTE

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 In a real structure the shear flow distribution for a channel
section looks similar to the opposite figure, i.e. parabolic in the
web and linear in the flanges;
 However, by idealising, the shear flow between booms are
constant values (see previous slide);
 By idealising we lost the correct shear flow distribution;
 The constant shear flows in idealised section are the average
values of the un-idealised section.
EFFECT OF IDEALISATION ON SHEAR OF CLOSED SECTION
BEAMS

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Open section Closed section
EXAMPLE

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 The thin-walled single cell beam has been idealised into a combination of direct stress-
carrying booms and shear-stress-only-carrying walls. If the section supports a vertical shear
load of 10kN acting in a vertical plane through booms 3 and 6, calculate the distribution of
shear flow around the section.
 Boom areas:
 B1=B8=200mm2, B2=B7=250mm2

 B3=B6=400mm2, B4= B5=100mm2

 SOLUTION

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tD  0 I xy  0

Cut the section in wall 23

to find basic shear flow
 SOLUTION

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Sy n Cut
By creating the cut we
have an open section now
qb    Br yr
I xx r 1

B1=B8=200mm2, B2=B7=250mm2
B3=B6=400mm2, B4=
B5=100mm2

  To findwe take moment

about the yellow point in
the figure
NOTE (MAYBE AN AMENDMENT TO MEGSON’S SOLUTION)

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 For wall 12 we have;
 Shear force and it components are;
2
Vx  q12  250  0.96  240q12 V
250mm

V y  q12  250  0.28  70q12 Vy

 The torque from 12 must be; 70mm
Vx
T  65Vx  360V y    16.2602o 1
240mm
65mm
65  240q12  360  70q12  40800q12
240+120=360mm
 Not what is given in Ref. [1] as;

T  100  240q12  240  70q12  40800q12

 However, for the sake of consistency we will go with solution given in Ref. [1].
64
SOLUTION

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  In any wall, the final shear flow is the summation of basic shear flow and ;
EFFECT OF IDEALISATION ON TORSION OF OPEN AND
CLOSED SECTION BEAMS

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 Shear due to torsion is not affected by idealisation and previous methods we discussed in
earlier lectures hold valid for idealised beam sections
TUTORIAL 1

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 The beam section has been idealised into an arrangement of direct stress-carrying booms
and shear-stress-only-carrying panels. If the beam section is subjected to a vertical shear
load of 1495N through its shear centre, booms 1, 4, 5, and 8 each have an area of 200mm2,
and booms 2, 3, 6, and 7 each have an area of 250mm2, determine the shear flow distribution
and the position of the shear centre.
68
TUTORIAL 3

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 Find the position of the shear centre of the rectangular four-boom beam. The booms carry
only direct stresses, but the skin is fully effective in carrying both shear and direct stress. The
area of each boom is 100mm2.
70
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