AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN

INITIAL SIZING

Ideally, an airplane should meet the criteria below:

# a low empty weight,
# good performance, Achieving this airplane requires compromise and balance.
# easy handling,
# a huge light structure,
# be inexpensive to manufacture and operate etc.
Stall speed is the slowest speed a plane can fly to
maintain level flight.

A classic example of this is the sizing of the wing area.

A large wing area leads to a lower stalling speed; if the design problem is simply “low stalling speed” or a
“lot of fuel capacity,” then a large wing area is an obvious solution.

However, if speed and efficiency are a goal too, a large wing area is detrimental. It increases drag and
structural weight and ignoring these will result in a poor design, no matter how low the stalling speed.

Correct sizing is required for airplane designs.

CONSTRAINT ANALYSIS
It can assess wing area and power plant for a design.
T/W (Thrust to weight ratio)

Design A would meet the T-O run and climb requirements.

Design C would meet none.
Desing E would meet all but the climb.
Design F meet all the criteria.

How do you understand which design meets which criteria?

W/S (Wing loading, Weight/Wing area)
CONSTRAINT ANALYSIS

The coincidence point X and Y are the optimum design points.

T/W (Thrust to weight ratio)

Y
X

W/S (Wing loading, Weight/Wing area)

Typical design space. Only a combination of T/W and

W/S that lie in the white (acceptable) region constitute
viable design. Here F is the only viable design, albeit not
optimal.
CONSTRAINT ANALYSIS
T/W (Thrust to weight ratio)
Y # Of the two points shown, the true optimum is the one
X
W/S (Wing loading, Weight/Wing area)
Typical design space. Only a combination of T/W and
W/S that lie in the white (acceptable) region constitute
viable design. Here F is the only viable design, albeit not
optimal.
The coincidence point X and Y are the optimum design points
# The least amount of power or thrust is required to
meet all applicable requirements.
that offers the lower W/S and T/W .
# This point results in minimum power required and
this usually means a power plant that is less expensive
to acquire and operate.
!!! However, think about the impact of the W/S on
stalling speed
For instance, the 14 CFR Part 23 stall speed maximum is
61 KCAS CS 23 or 45 KCAS for Light Sport Aircraft (LSA).
Let’s say you picked Design X and the stall speed is 70
KCAS depending on this design configuration.
What region you would pick a point to decrease stalling
speed?
General Methodology

Aims to create mathematical relationship by

converting the performance characteristic into the
the form T/W = f(W/S)

T/W for a Level Constant-velocity turn

The following expression is used to determine the T / W ratio

required to maintain a specific banking load factor ( n ) at a
specific airspeed and altitude, without losing altitude
 T/W for a desired specific energy level

Sometimes it is of importance to evaluate the T / W for a specific energy level other than P S = 0, as was done above.

For instance, consider a project where the design is required to possess a specific energy level amounting to 20 ft/s at
a given load factor, airspeed, and altitude.

Such an evaluation could be used for the design of an aerobatic airplane, for which the capability of a rival aircraft
might be known and used as a baseline.
The height above sea level at which an aircraft with a normal-
rated load is unable to climb faster than 100 feet per minute
under standard air conditions.

The service ceiling is the maximum altitude of an aircraft

during normal operations.
The height above sea level at which an aircraft with a normal-
rated load is unable to climb faster than 100 feet per minute
under standard air conditions.

The service ceiling is the maximum altitude of an aircraft

during normal operations.
Note that when constructing
constraint diagrams for
propeller aircraft, the analysis
is complicated by having to
convert the thrust-to-weight
ratio to P / W .
Such diagrams are far more
convenient for propeller-
powered aircraft because
conventional piston and
turboprop engines are rated in
terms of horsepower.
Converted by the formula given
(np: propeller efficiency)
Normalised depending on the Gag and Ferrar model,
So required power at certain altitude can be transformed sea
level conditions
Open page 64 in the book to see example 3-1
There is a calculation in the excel file (constrain analysis)
Introduction of stall speed limits into the constraint diagram
# You might cause high stall speed by meeting all other criteria.
# It is highly critical to include stall speeding in constraint diagram to choose proper parameters with stall speed
as given below.
INTRODUCTION TO TRADE STUDIES

Lift, drag and weight are counterproductive.

How does large wing area affect stalling speed, drag and structural weight?

Stalling speed
Large wing area Drag

Structural weight
INTRODUCTION TO TRADE STUDIES

Lift, drag and weight are counterproductive.

How does large wing area affect stalling speed, drag and structural weight?

Stalling speed
Large wing area Drag

Structural weight

!!! A designer must think of the effect of his/her decisions.

INTRODUCTION TO TRADE STUDIES

• A good understanding of such methods

is essential for the design engineer.

• The three characteristics (lift, drag, and

weight) are counterproductive.

• Such tasks are most easily accomplished

using trade studies of the nature
presented below.

Parametric trade study with three variables (thrust-to-

weight ratio, wing loading and aspect ratio

What does parametric study mean?

 The AR is held constant and the T / W and W / S
are iterated to give the minimum TOGW vehicle
that just meets the mission.

Then design cycle is repeated.

Computer must be used to perform design

iterations.

Designer must be aware of the result of the

analysis and pick the optimum results.

As parametric studies can become dense and

Parametric trade study with three variables (thrust-to- cause overlapping, designers better visibility.
weight ratio, wing loading and aspect ratio)
Thus carpet plots can help designers to present
data with providing direct iteration.
Parametric study is, actually, an elementary form of
optimization in which, at each step, one or two of the
parameter values are optimized, while the others are
kept constant.
Other design
parameters can be
included such as
takeoff field length,
approach speed and
airport noise etc.

Cost parameter is
included here.
INTRODUCTION TO TRADE STUDIES
• A good understanding of such methods is essential for the design engineer.
• The three characteristics (lift, drag, and weight) are counterproductive.
• Such tasks are most easily accomplished using trade studies of the nature presented below.

Stall-speed – cruise speed carpet plot

Help the designer to select a wing area such that both desired stalling and cruising speed targets can be met.

1. Establish preliminary data 2. Decide plot limits

Be prudent, so 59 KCAS is chosen for stall speed Decide the range and steps of maximum lift coefficient,
Search competitor airplanes, choose reasonable parameters CLmax , to analyze.

e.g.
Here we will pick 1.7 ≤ C Lmax ≤ 2.3 with seven steps, of
which the magnitude of each is 0.1.

Decide the range of wing areas, S , using the same number of

steps as for the CLmax .

Similarly, we will pick 120 ≤ S ≤ 180 ft 2 , also with seven

steps, each being 10 ft 2 in magnitude.
Design of Experiments
Let’s say you will design the tail wing on the right side.
The relationship of parameters are analysed as given from the graph.
Could you comment which valuables are important for the experimental studies?
Design of Experiments
Let’s say you will design the tail wing on the right side.
The relationship of parameters are analysed as given from the graph.
Could you comment which valuables are important?

Tail arm, vertical tail span and vertical tail area are worth to analyse
as affecting the directional stability.

However, no significant effect of sweep angle is observed. No need to

spend effort for it.
Cost functions Condition (1)

Condition (2)
The viability of proposed solutions in a trade study can
be judged using so-called cost functions .

A cost function is a product of, a sum of, or some

mathematical combination of two or more parameters
that yields a value that can be used to evaluate the
quality of the combination Condition (3)

Consider two functions f = x . (1 + cos x ) and g = x /2, that represent some properties of interest in a trade study.

(1) The maximum of the product of both functions, which requires f . g to be calculated.
(2) We want to maximize f while minimizing g, which requires f to be divided by g .
(3) We want to maximize g while minimizing f, which requires g to be divided by f.
Example Fuel consumption
If the engine with low weight, low cost, and low fuel
consumption and high power are expected,
What would be the cost function?
Example Fuel consumption
If want the engine with low weight, low cost, and low fuel
consumption and high power,
What would be the cost function?
Example Fuel consumption
If power/weight ratio is 4 times more important than
power/cost ratio and 10 times more important than
power/consumption ratio

When we would like to evaluate power/weight,

power/cost and power/consumption ratios,
Suitable cost functions is