Topology Optimisation of Representative Aircraft Wing Geometries with an Experimental Validation

Abstract: Increasingly aircraft are being designed to be more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient, as defined by the 2020-Vision and Flight-Path EU initiatives. This entails a reduction in aircraft weight while still maintaining all the other constraints. The conventional, semi-monocoque, aircraft design has not changed for the past 50 years. Recently, developments in aircraft design has mainly come from the use of novel materials. A technique has recently been proposed, whereby topology optimisation is used, to determine the material distribution of simple flat plate wings for improved flutter characteristics. It was found that by modifying eigenmode shapes and separating the static natural frequencies the flutter velocity of the simple models could be improved. However, topology optimisation of continuum structures for dynamic stability is, thus far, limited to relatively small design problems. Therefore, this study has two aims. Firstly, it is to extend the method to representative aircraft wing structures and secondly to verify the theoretical results by experiment.