Aerospace Structures Lab Academic Year 2019 - 2020

Exercise – 10
Final Report of the “God’s own Chariot” Cargo aircraft that was
engineered in the Aerospace Structures Laboratory

As a preliminary design phase of a cargo aircraft that was carried out in the 6th semester, the focus was
mainly on the efficient aerodynamic design of the aircraft. This was initiated by primarily carrying out
a literature survey on the available design on the cargo aircrafts and collecting significant data that was
required for our design phase followed by the evaluation of various aerodynamic parameters of the
complete airplane like the aspect ratio and taper ratio of the wing, the rudder design, the design of
horizontal stabilizer, the efficient winglets so on and so forth. This design was then modelled using the
modelling software (Fusion 360) to actually visualize the model and to have a feel as an aerospace
engineer.
As it is evident that the aerodynamic design of the aircraft alone doesn’t suffice for an overall stability
of the aircraft, the structural aspects and its design also needs a conscious and careful inspection in
order to achieve the desired performance of the aircraft mainly in reference to the structural stability.
Also, the phenomenon involving both structural and aerodynamic interactions have to be studied in
order to precisely lay out the fundamental behaviour of the aircraft in actual flight conditions. Hence,
in the current semester i.e., the 7th semester, focus was mainly diverted to the evaluation of the
structural aspects of the aircraft. In the first exercise, the lift distribution on the wing is evaluated using
the concept of Schrenk’s curve to predict the lift distribution on the aircraft wing. In the second
exercise, the evaluation of the load distribution is carried out in order to acquire the distribution of the
load and understand how the aerodynamic forces especially the resultant force, i.e., (lift load -weight)
has a significant impact on the wing structure. In the third exercise, evaluation of the shear force and
bending moment distribution was carried out and it was understood that the moment at the free end
i.e., the tip of the wing is Zero and at the root of the wing the moment takes on a finite maximum value.
Similarly, the tip of the aircraft has a Zero shear force and at the root the shear force is maximum.
Therefore, the shear force and the bending moment distribution curves were plotted. In the fourth
exercise, the torque distribution on the wing structure was analyzed in order to determine the twist in
the wing structure due to the aerodynamic loads. Moving on the interior design of the wing structure,
the strengthening of the wing is of a prime concern. This is possible by careful and analytical design of
the spars and stringers to resist bending and strengthen the structure. This was the aim of the fifth
exercise and the design of spars and stringers was studied. Next, focussing on the fuselage design; the
concept of structural idealization is utilized by providing equivalent booms on the circumference of the
fuselage. The booms carry the bending stresses and the fuselage skin is responsible to bear the shear
loads. In the seventh exercise, the shear flow distribution on the fuselage skin was evaluated in
continuation with the previous exercise. Finally, after evaluating the significant structural aspects in
the design of the aircraft, a 3D model of the aerodynamically and structurally engineered aircraft was
initiated in order to make the design tangible and to have an overall feel of the aerodynamical and
structural engineering of an aircraft. This could be an added advantage and a small scale understanding
of how really the aerospace companies like Boeing, Airbus, HAL, etc functions on the basis of
aerodynamical and structural aspects.