Luciano Magno Fragola Barbosa
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Ricardo Luiz Utsch de Freitas Pinto
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Bernardo Oliveira Hargreaves
In this work improvements on the geometry of a high aspect ratio aircraft wing are studied, in order to reduce the wing in-flight deformation, without changing the drag of the aircraft and without increasing the structural weight. For this, from a reference rectangular wing, one new wing with elliptical planform has been defined; and comparative analyses of loads and structural deformation have been made for the wings considered: the original rectangular wing and the new corresponding elliptical wing. The aerodynamic analysis is based on the lifting line approach. A computer routine is made by the authors based on this approach, to obtain both induced drag values and the load distribution of the two wings, the original one and the corresponding elliptical. Based on the loads, spars for the two wings have been defined, and in order to evaluate the vertical displacements in flight, a finite element routine have been used. The main result of this study is the comparison of the deformation of wings considered, subjected to the same load factor, and for the same aircraft mass. The results obtained are encouraging for further developments using the present methodology.
Lifting-Line Predictions for Induced Drag and Lift in Ground Effect