Effects of sweep angle in aeroelastic response of wings made of isotropic and fiber reinforced composite materials

Resumo

© 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.Common aircraft mainframes are traditionally designed with unswept or backward swept wings. However, forward swept wings even presenting interesting aerodynamic characteristics were rulled out of aircraft design due the structural design challenges related with the torsion-bending coupling in static aeroelastic divergence. This paper proposes an investigation of sweep angle effect on aeroelastic response of wings made of isotropic and/or fiber reinforced composite materials with constant and variable stiffness. The aeroelastic behavior of flexible isotropic swept wing obtained with the implementation of a numeric aeroelastic system with finite elements and panels methods, for structure and aerodynamic, respectively, is compared with literature and validated with wind tunnel tests. The potential of tailored tow-steered laminated to enhance aeroelastic response is presented and compared with traditional unidirectional fiber reinforced carbon fiber-epoxy resin composites.