A Study On Wing Mass Estimation Method For Large Civil Aircraft

The wing structural mass estimation is a very important content in the aircraft preliminary design of wide body aircraft. It have significant influence on aircraft consumption level, taking off and landing performance, flight performance, carrying capacity, development and manufacturing cost and the flying cost. In the conceptual design stage of wide body aircraft, one of the conventional methods of wing structure mass estimation is engineering algorithm using beam theory combined with empirical formula, the other method is based on the theory of finite element and structural optimization. The wing structural mass estimation problem of wide body aircraft was studied in the thesis. The engineering algorithm and parametric finite element method were studied for the wing structural mass estimation of a wide body aircraft. The main contents are:1) The principle of engineering algorithm of engineering beam theory combined with empirical formula was studied. The automatic estimation process was realized with the assistant of CAE software program. The accuracy and validity of this method was verified by use of the wing structural mass of the existing narrow body aircraft. At last, the wing structural mass of a wide body aircraft was estimated using the method.2) The wing structure mass estimation method based on the finite element method was studied. The parametrical method was used in the wing structural finite element modeling to simplify the modeling process, and solve the difficulty of the wing structural finite element modeling. A mass estimation method that combined the structural finite element modeling with the parametric method was established. The wing structure mass of a narrow body aircraft was used to verify the accuracy of the estimation method. The wing structure mass of the wide body aircraft was estimated using the finite element method proposed in the thesis.3) The wing mass with different materials and different layout was estimated using the finite element method combining with the parametric. The influences of wing structural layouts and the material properties on the wing structural mass were investigated. The results could provide a reference for determining the mass index in the aircraft preliminary design.The results indicate that:(1) the engineering algorithm based on empirical formula for estimation wing structure mass can reach a reasonable precision. The advantage of this method is that only few input parameters are needed, and results can be obtained rapidly, and is suitable for conceptual design stage.(2) The finite element modeling method combined with the parametric method can solve the difficulty of the wing structural finite element modeling, and can be used in the aircraft preliminary design stage.