Principles of Aircraft Construction

Introduction
• Major factors influencing aircraft construction
– Loads
– Materials
• Aircraft structure development
p made ppossible by
y
the stressed skin construction
• Load transfer principles are important in
structural construction
• Connections are also key elements in
construction

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 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Loads on Structural Components

When do they act
• Ground Loads – during transportation on the
ground
– Taxiing
– Landing
– Towing
– Hoisting
• Air Loads – during flight
– Steadyy flight
g
– Manoeuvers
– Gusts
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Air Loads on Structural Components

How they act
• Surface forces – act on the surface of
structure
– Aerodynamic pressure
– Hydrostatic pressure
• Body forces – act over volume of structure
– Gravitation effects
– Inertial effects
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Action of Air Loads

• All air
i lloads
d are th
the resultant
lt t off pressure
distribution over surface of the skin during
– Steady flight
– Manoeuvre
– Gust conditions
• Air loads cause
– Direct loads
– Bending,
Bending shear,
shear torsion on parts
– Local normal loads on the skin
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Major Parts of Aircraft

• Wing
– Provide lift
• Fuselage
– Contains
C t i crew & payloadl d ((passengers, cargo,
fuel, weapons etc.)
• Tail (horizontal & vertical)
– Major contributor of directional control
• Ailerons, elevators, rudder
– Enable maneuvre and stability
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Major Parts of Aircraft

 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Frame based structures

• Essential load to be carried by frames
• Wires stretched corner to corner supports
frame from collapsing
• Two
T major
j features
f t
– Two wings
g one above the other will reduce
weight
– Frame could be held in shape with light wires
for weight reduction

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 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Frame based structure aircraft (1)

Frame-based

Sopwith Camel (1917)

- Two wing design
- Extensive use of light wires
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Frame based structure aircraft (2)

Frame-based

Hawker Fury (1931)

- General reduction in light wires used
- Light wires between wings abandoned
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Frame based structure aircraft (3)

Frame-based

Hawker Hurricane (1935)

- Light wires almost completely removed
- Two wing concept abandoned for improved aerodynamics
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Stressed skin construction

• The standard for most general aviation
aircraft builders
• The metal skin exterior is riveted, or bolted
and riveted,
riveted to the finished fuselage frame
• The skin of the structure is load bearing
• Different from an internal framework or
truss structure where the skin is not load
bearing
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Structural Components in Stressed

Skin Construction
• Function
F ti
– Transmit and resist the applied loads
– Protect payload from environmental conditions
• Types
– Monocoque
– Semi-monocoque
• Monocoque
q structures
– Skins used solely to resist loads
• Semi-monocoque structures
– Outer skin is supported by longitudinal stiffening
members
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Monocoque & Semi-Monocoque

Construction
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Monocoque Structure
• A thin walled tube or shell which may have
bulkheads or formers installed within.
• It can carry loads effectively, particularly when
the tubes are of small diameter.
• The stresses in the monocoque fuselage are
transmitted primarily by the strength of the skin.
• As its diameter of the fuselage increases in
monocoque structure
structure, the weight-to-strength
ratio increases.
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Semi Monocoque Structure

Semi-Monocoque
• Depends primarily on bulkheads, frames and
formers for vertical strength.
• Depends on longerons and stringers for
longitudinal
g strength.
g
• The most popular type of structure used in
aircraft design today.
• Enabled aircraft designers to use aluminum
skins as light as 0
0.4
4 mm in thickness for primary
structure on airplanes.
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Boeing Fuselage Construction

 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Materials of Construction
• Aluminum alloys
• Steel
• Titanium
• Plastics
• Glass
• Composite materials

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 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Stress strain of different materials

Stress-strain

Higher allowable stress achieved using carbon fibers

 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Materials composition in Boeing

747 and 777
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Materials composition in a
Eurofighter jet
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Carbon Nanotube Composites

100-metre-long carbon-nanotube composite fibres that are tougher than any natural
or synthetic organic fibre described so far.
Super-tough carbon-nanotube fibres, A.B. Dalton et.al., Nature 423, 703 (2003)

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 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Sandwich Structures
• A major limitation of stressed skin
g y
construction is lack of rigidity
• Sandwich structure comprises
– Two
T end
d thin
thi plates
l t
– Light and fairly rigid core placed in the middle
– Parts bonded together with adhesive
• Honeycomb cells is the most common
sandwich structure currently in use
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Honeycomb Wing Design

One design to improve the

flexural strength of wings is to
use honeycomb structures.

Honeycomb structures have

high flexural strength to weight
ratio.
ti
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Laying up a sandwich panel

Curved and flat structures can be constructed

 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Sandwich panels

Sandwich panels can be constructed for almost every component

 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Load Transfer Principle

Airframes often cannot be designed to
support loads at locations where the loads
appear (Section B may not be able to
appear.
support torsion and bending moment applied
there)

Airframe loads are collected

locally and transferred to
major load
load-carrying
carrying
members. (Load may not to
be transferred to section A)

Care must be taken to avoid

excessive local stress & deflections
at the location of load bearing.
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 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Load Transfer Example (1)

The skin of the wing is often
not able to withstand strong
compressive
p loads.

The load acting on the skin

has to be transferred to
a. Rib
b. Vertical Stiffener
c. Spars
d. Flange Wing section
to withstand the load
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Load Transfer Example (2)

Strong compressive loads
applied on the fuselage skin
may cause it to
t buckle
b kl

The loads acting on the skin

has to be transferred to
A Frame
A.
B. Stringer

Fuselage
section
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Connections
• Aircraft fabrication generally involves
jjoining
g one ppart of component
p to another
• With aluminum alloy construction, riveted
joints are the major means of connection
• Other connection means are
– Welding
– Adhesion

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 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Lap Joints
Lap jjoint
L i t iis a single
i l liline off
rivets connecting two plates

Lap joint failure can occur

from
4 Pb
A. Rivet Shear τ=
πd 2
Pb
B. Rivet Bearing Stress σb =
td
Pb
C. Plate Tension σ=
t (b − d )

D. Plate Shear Pb The plates carry edge loads of P /unit width

τ=
2at
Multiple rivet lines affect the rivet stresses
but not the plate stresses
 Principles of Aircraft Construction

Joint Efficiency
• Joint efficiency is
measured by comparing σt (b − d ) / b b − d
η= =
actual failure load with σt b
load to be applied if there
were no rivet holes
• Joint efficiency can be
increased by having
multiple rows of rivets
• Joint efficiency can never
be 100%

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