Hasan HIZLI (1426113)

AE 362 Homework I

Evolution of Structures Design Philosophy and Criteria

The challenge in airframe structure design has always been to provide an optimum solution satisfying
the competing requirements for safety, performance and cost.

It is expected the next generation of commercial airplanes to offer the airlines passenger even safer
and more comfortable travel at lower cost. To achieve this, there are three requirements; such that to
provide maximum inherent safety, to achieve superior structural performance in terms of weight and
durability and deliver an airframe with minimum cost of production and long term ownership by
operator.

Safe airframe is based on state of the art understanding of the operating environment and structural
behavior. Designing for strength and stiffness are the primarily subjects. The airplane must be free
from flutter, divergence, control reversal and undue loss stability and control as a result of structural
deformation because of inadequate stiffness. Fail safety is the ability to fly and land safely with
significant structural damage. It is a fundamental design requirement and all flight loaded structures
must be designed to be fail safe. Damage tolerance is the ability to sustain operating loads in the
presence of unknown fatigue, corrosion, or accidental damage until such damages is detected
through inspections. Another important thing is durability which provides the customer with a long
life, trouble free airplane with reasonable maintenance costs.

Performance is another important parameter in aerospace. A new airplane must offer superior
performance as well as unquestionable safety to be successful in the marketing place. The structures
contribution to this goal is vital and mandates delivery of the most weight efficient design. The
experience of last year’s made the design task more efficient which has brought about a wealthy
skills, comprehensive database, material options, and design analysis tools. All requirements in design
should meet with a minimum weight, complexity, and cost, with no sacrifice in safety or quality.

Principally these assets include;

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AE 362 Homework I

1) a thorough understanding of operating environment,

2) an accurate external and internal loads prediction capability
3) the availability of high performance materials tailored for specific needs,
4) refined techniques for predicting fatique and fracture bahvior, validated by comprehensive test
programs,
5) the capacity for raliable corrosion prevention and control and
6) the critical role of maintenance and shared service experience.

Each has contributed greatly to today’s essentially seamless design approach for the best possible
structural performance.

The ability to predict correctly the airplane loads environment has improved significantly and this led
to improvements in safety, enhanced performance and also increased level of passenger comfort.
Over the years, as the knowledge, tools and requirements have matured, the airlines and flying public
hav both benefited not only from the increased levels of safety, but from lighter, more durable
airplanes that provide better levels of passenger comfort. So that aircraft structural engineers have
pioneered the development of high strenght, lightweight alloys and have led the research that
resulted in refined methods of structural analysis. Improvements in computing power and methods
allowed the aircraft not only to better optimize structure dor improved performance and safety but
also eliminate extensive testing from components to full-scale airplanes.

The need for lighter structure has driven the development of higher strenght alloys. Aluminum, steel,
titanium and composite material are the extensively used material used on commercial airplane.
Titanium alloys are high-stregnht, low density, elavated – temperature capabilities and corrosion
resistance but their price is higher than aluminum and steel alloys. Composite materials have
excellent fatique and corrosion resistance. Development of new materials and processes for
fabrication of large structure, as well as improvement to the design and analysis tools, is ongoing.

Corrosion control is an important strcutural performance requirements similar to fatique, damage

tolerance, or ultimate strenght. Material selection is important to prevent corrosion. For example,
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AE 362 Homework I

propensity of aluminum alloysfor corrosion has been a serious problem for the designer and operator.
It is reasanable to believe that corrosion avoidance could be the most compelling reason for greater
use of composites in future airplanes. Designing for corrosion avoidance and control is another
critical design goal requiring well-defined criteria and procedures.

The other critical subject is the cost of airplane in aerospace. Decisions made by modern structures
design team must address both the purchase price of the aircraft and the life- cycle costs, while still
meeting the performance targets for the stated mission.

The flying public deserves airplanes that are even safer, more comfortable, and more economical. The
stuctures community contribution must be meet the challenges of providing improved safety; more
efficient structural performance; reduced cost of production and owneship; shorter, more agile
development flow times;and fully productive use of our resources in-house and with our partners
and suppliers. Minimum weight structure should be coupled with maximum safety.

In this journal, five future challenges were mentioned. These are;

1) composite structures
2) health management
3) tools and processes
4) probabilistic methods
5) global partnership

I think the most significants future challenges are composite structures & tools and processes. Two of
them are too new techologies which wil be improved rapidly in next years.

Composite structure will lead to significant weight reduction, corrosion avoidance and operator
acceptance. Composite materials can be chosen high-stregnht, low density.

The improvements in accuracy of tools, the ability to solve more complex problems, and a better
understanding of the important parameters have allowed for optimized structural solutions for
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AE 362 Homework I

performance, while maintaining or improving stringent safety levels. By helping of computer-aided

design and anlaysis tools, design and development flow times will be reduced. Rapidly increasing
computing power allows increasingly complex design and anlaysis operation to be perfomed in
acceptable times.