Sci Eng Compos Mater 2020; 27:258–263

Research Article

Kang Yang*, Yi-lin Guo, Dong-hui Li, Gang Ma, Hao Geng, Qun-fang Li, and Ji-jia Xue

Design and static testing of wing structure of a

composite four-seater electric aircraft
https://doi.org/10.1515/secm-2020-0023
Received Apr 04, 2020; accepted Jun 17, 2020
1 Introduction
Abstract: Because of its light weight, high strength, des- In recent years, Europe and other developed countries are
ignable, composite materials are more and more widely calling for improving the environmental protection perfor-
used in the field of aerospace, especially in the field of mance of aircraft and building green aviation. Many in-
general aviation. In this paper, the structural design and stitutions are working to alleviate the impact of aviation
analysis of the composite wing (include wing beam, rib, on the environment. The emergence of new energy elec-
skin, leading edge and trailing edge) of a four-seater elec- tric aircraft provides a bright technical way for the thor-
tric aircraft were carried out. The finite element numeri- ough greening of aviation [1–8]. In addition, because of
cal analysis model of the composite wing was established, the more and more extensive application of composite ma-
and the deformation and strain distribution of the compos- terials in the field of aviation [1–8], the design and manu-
ite wing under the limited load required by airworthiness facture of light-weight and high-strength composite struc-
regulations were calculated. Finally, the static test of the tures has become one of the challenges faced by the devel-
whole composite wing was carried out to verify the accu- opment of electric aircraft [1]. Yang K et al. [12] conducted fi-
racy of the finite element results. The finite element analy- nite element analysis and static testing on composite wing
sis and testing results showed that the structural design of of a two-seater electric aircraft. The stress distribution at
the composite wing of the electric aircraft meets the struc- the reference point and the wing tip deformation obtained
tural strength requirements specified in the airworthiness from the testing and analysis results were in good agree-
standard (part 23 of China civil aviation regulations: air- ment. At the same time, it was verified that the composite
worthiness requirements for normal, practical, special ef- wing structure meets the requirements for aircraft struc-
fects and commuting aircraft: CCAR 23-R3) ture strength in ASTM F2245-11 [13]. Du Chunzhi et al. [14]
designed the composite structure of the wing of a low-
Keywords: Four-seater electric aircraft; Composite wing;
speed aircraft in the way of layering and geometric mod-
Static testing; Finite element analysis; CCAR 23-R3
eling, and analyzed the strength and stiffness of the wing
in different layering by ANSYS finite element software. The
results showed that the composite wing had lighter weight,
higher strength and greater stiffness than the traditional
wing under the same working condition. Wang Tong and
Wu Zhen [15] based on the wing model of aircraft which
named x, established the wing model of half composite, all
composite and all metal with the method of equal rigidity
*Corresponding Author: Kang Yang: Design department, Liaon- design, and carried out the finite element analysis under
ing General Aviation Academy, Shenyang 110136; Liaoning Key the same aerodynamic shape and load with ABAQUS soft-
Laboratory of General Aviation, Shenyang Aerospace University, ware. The analysis results showed that the weight of half
Shenyang 110136; Email: [email protected] composite wing was about 35% less than that of all metal
Hao Geng: Design department, Liaoning General Aviation Academy,
wing, and the weight of all composite wing was nearly 50%
Shenyang 110136; Email: [email protected]
Yi-lin Guo, Dong-hui Li, Gang Ma, Qun-fang Li: Design depart-
less than that of all metal wing. Smith, H. W. [16] stud-
ment, Liaoning General Aviation Academy, Shenyang 110136; Liaon- ied the structural design, the static testing equipment and
ing Key Laboratory of General Aviation, Shenyang Aerospace Univer- the testing method of hydrogen fuel light UAV. The test
sity, Shenyang 110136 results were in good agreement with the previous analy-
Ji-jia Xue: Design department, Liaoning General Aviation sis results. In order to meet the requirements of long-life,
Academy,Shenyang 110136; Liaoning Rui-xiang General Aircraft
Zhang W et al. [17] carried out lightweight design for the
Manufacturing Co., LTD, Shenyang 110136

Open Access. © 2020 K. Yang et al., published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
License
 Design and static testing of wing structure of a composite four-seater electric aircraft | 259

structure of small ultra light solar UAV according to the 2.2 The materials and ply design of the wing
mechanical characteristics of the structure, and the ratio-
nality of the structure was verified by the finite element The wing was made of carbon fiber/glass fiber compos-
analysis and static testing method. Finally, the finite ele- ite (manufacturer was Weihai Guang-wei composite mate-
ment modal analysis was carried out, and then the finite rial Co., Ltd.) and foam sandwich structure, materials and
element analysis results were modified according to the brand name: 3K carbon cloth (W-3021FF), carbon fiber uni-
modal testing results. The agreement obtained was very directional prepreg (UIN 23100), glass fiber cloth (SW110c-
good between the experimental results and the theoretical 100a) and foam (H60 4 PSC). The mechanical properties
predictions. Simsiriwong j [18] has studied the static and of each material were shown in Table 1. The main parts of
vibration characteristics of the wing and fuselage struc- the wing (include skin, root rib, flange strip of wing beam,
ture of a full-size carbon fiber composite of the ultra light web, front/rear edge of wing) used hand lay-up method
UAV, and designed a hydraulic system and a tail fixing and were laid shown in Table 2.
device, obtained the static response, natural frequency,
damping coefficient and vibration mode of the two struc-
tures under the simulated load. In the above research and
other available literature, there were no research about the
3 Finite element analysis and wing
composite wing structure design and analysis of a four- static testing
seat electric aircraft.
In this paper, the structural design method of the com- 3.1 Finite element analysis model
posite wing of a four-seater electric aircraft was studied.
Then, the structural model of the wing was numerically In the finite element analysis, HyperMesh software was
simulated by the finite element analysis software. Finally, used for mesh generation, boundary condition setting,
the static testing and analysis results of the full-size com- other pre-processing and post-processing. Nx.nastran soft-
posite wing were compared to verify whether the wing ware was used for calculation. The finite element model
structure meets the CCAR 23-R3 [19] airworthiness clause, used the triangle/quadrilateral shell, and the connection
which showed the rationality of the wing structure design, of the pin used the MPCs (a contact algorithm for shell) to
and provided a certain reference for relevant researchers associate the two components. The boundary constraint
to carry out the structural design of the same level of air- points were the root rib pin and the wing beam butt pin.
craft. The numbers of element were 86360 and the numbers of
node were 192664, and the finite element model shown in
Figure 7.
2 Structural design of the
composite wing
2.1 The structure and connection of wing

The overall dimensions and structural of the aircraft and

wing were shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The span was
13500mm (the flap span was 3650mm, the aileron span
was 2000mm), the maximum take-off weight was 1200Kg,
and the maximum overload was +3.8g/−1.52g. The wing
consisted of main wing, flap and aileron. The main wing
was single beam structure, and the wing beam was I-beam
structure of cross section, which was located at the maxi-
mum thickness of the wing (about 30% chord length).
The wing and fuselage were connected by pins, which
were fixed by four rib pins to transfer the wing shear and Figure 1: Outline dimension diagram of aircraft (/mm)
torque to the fuselage. The left and right wing beams were
connected by two wing beam butt pins to realize the mo-
ment self-balance of the wing, as shown in Figure 3.
260 | K. Yang et al.

Table 1: Mechanical property of materials

mechanical properties W-3021FF SW110c-100a UIN 23100 H604PSC

E11 /GPa 59.0 26.8 136.0 0.0012
E22 /GPa 59.0 26.8 0.037 –
G12 /GPa 9.5 7.3 0.037 –
V12 0.062 0.126 0.33 0.32

Table 2: Layout of wing main structure

the main parts quantity orientation*

skin 14 s45/[t0]3/p/t0/s0
front edge 4 [t0]2
rear edge 8 t0/[t45]2/t0
root rib 28 [t0/t45]2/[t0]10/[t0/t45]2
flange strip 40 [u45]/[u(−45)]/[u0]29/[u(−45)]/[u45]
web 44 [t0]8/[p4]2/[t0]20/[t45]13/p
Note: 45 indicated that the woven fabric was in ±45∘ orientation. 0 indicated the 0∘ /90∘ orientation of the woven fabric. s indicated the glass
fiber cloth. t indicated 3K carbon cloth. u represents carbon fiber unidirectional prepreg. P represent foam.

(a)
Figure 2: The wing structure (/mm)

(b)

Figure 4: The loading system of wing

Figure 3: Schematic diagram of wing-fuselage connection

3.2 Static testing of the wing pins, as shown in Figure 4(a). The loading equipment was
electric portal jib crane, and tension was monitored by ten-
The static test of the wing was carried out by the combina- sion meter, as shown in Figure 4(b).
tion of the clamp pallet and the lever system. The levers The wing was divided into 8 regions from the wing root
were divided into three levels. The restraint points of the to the wing tip, and the boundary of each region was be-
test piece were the root rib pins and the wing beam butt tween the two adjacent pallets. According to the principle
 Design and static testing of wing structure of a composite four-seater electric aircraft | 261

Table 3: Position and limit loads of wing clamp let and the root rib, along the direction of the main wing
beam, as shown in Figure 5. Moreover, the strain collection
NO. Distance from wing root/mm The limit load/N system used Donghua-DH3820 high-speed strain gauge
L1 501 2552 which made in China, the strain gauge model was BF350-
L2 1215 1955.8 5AA(11)N6-X and produced by CETCA. And all the above
L3 1925 2171 equipments were qualified after verification.
L4 2635 1916.6
L5 3349 1554
L6 3993 1454
L7 4753 1042.5 4 The static testing and finite
L8 5513 1954 element analysis results
After the testing was loaded to the limit load and kept for
30s shown in Figure 6. There were no abnormal sound and
damage on the wing. At this time, the deformation of the
wing tip was 772mm. And after unloading, the deformation
of the wing tip was 16mm relative to the initial state. The
preliminary analysis was caused by the assembly clear-
ance of each component. The deformation was small and
the wing does not have plastic deformation. Therefore, the
strength of the wing structure met the requirements of
CCAR 23-R3 airworthiness clause (clause 23.305 stipulates
that the structure must be able to bear the limited load
Figure 5: Position of strain gauge without harmful permanent deformation and under any
load until the limited load, the deformation will not affect
the safe operation).
of equivalent shear force and bending moment, all aerody-
namic forces and inertia forces in this area were combined.
Similarly, the location of each loading point in chord direc-
tion was determined according to the principle of equiva-
lent shear force and bending moment.
According to the requirements of relevant provisions
of CCAR 23-R3: for normal, practical and commuter air-
crafts, symmetrical wing load test under the case A (in
the flight envelope of the aircraft, the limited maneuver-
ing load point of the aircraft) was required. In Table 3 and
Figure 5, the location and load of the clamp pallets were
shown. Due to the symmetrical loading of the left and right (a)
wings, so the left wing was selected for loading test, and
loaded to the limit load which was 67% of the ultimate
load.

3.3 Testing project and equipments

Static testing measurement data included tip deformation

and strain at reference point of the wing. The deforma-
tion of wing tip was recorded by placing a steel scale. For
the strain measurement, pasted the strain gauge symmet- (b)
rically on the upper/lower skin of the left wing at the mid-
Figure 6: The result of static testing
dle between the clamp pallet, and between the clamp pal-
262 | K. Yang et al.

Table 4: The deformation of measurement and FE analysis to the left

wing tip

Results The deformation of wing tip /mm

measurement 772
FE analysis 803
relative error 4.0%

between the finite element analysis and the testing value

(a)
was small. The wing tip deformation was shown in Table 4,
so the strain measurement value and the wing tip deforma-
tion testing result were in good agreement with the corre-
sponding finite element analysis calculation value. There-
fore, the results of finite element analysis were accurate
and reliable.

5 Conclusion
(b) In this paper, the finite element method was used to ana-
lyze whether the structural design of the composite wing
Figure 7: The result of finite element (FE) analysis, (a) is the strain of a four-seater electric aircraft can meet the strength re-
distribution nephogram, (b) is the deformation distribution
quirements of airworthiness regulations under limit load.
nephogram
The results were verified by full-scale wing static testing
and the conclusions were as follows:
(1) The force transfer route between wing and fuse-
lage met the requirements of the aircraft structural
strength.
(2) Under the limit load, the wing structure had no
plastic deformation and damage, and the structural
strength met the requirements of CCAR 23-R3 air-
worthiness regulations for normal, practical, special
and commuter aircraft.
(3) The results of the finite element analysis were
in good agreement with the experimental results,
which proved the applicability of the finite element
analysis results.
(4) The connection design of wing and fuselage had cer-
Figure 8: The result of strain measurement and FE analysis tain reference significance for relevant structural de-
signers.

For the strain measurement results, the maximum

value of the upper wing skin was −2586µε, and the lower
wing skin was 2047µε. According to the testing results and References
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