Modern Mechanical Engineering, 2018, 8, 249-263

http://www.scirp.org/journal/mme
ISSN Online: 2164-0181
ISSN Print: 2164-0165

Design and Optimization of Wing Structure for

a Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Jiawen Yu

Ranney School, Tinton Falls, NJ, USA

How to cite this paper: Yu, J.W. (2018) Abstract

Design and Optimization of Wing Struc-
ture for a Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial The wing, one of the most important parts of aircraft, always requires sophis-
Vehicle (UAV). Modern Mechanical Engi- ticated design to increase lift, reduce drag and weight. For modern fixed-wing
neering, 8, 249-263. UAV, extending cruising time is always a requirement for the overall design.
https://doi.org/10.4236/mme.2018.84017
Designing a most light wing that can match the requirements of work condi-
Received: August 22, 2018 tions is desired. In this work, according to the work conditions, we compare
Accepted: November 18, 2018 several types of wing and chose beam-type wing. Then we made the detailed
Published: November 21, 2018 design and optimization to reduce the weight of wing. At last, we draw the 3D
model for potential realistic production.
Copyright © 2018 by author and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Keywords
Commons Attribution International
Wing Structure, Optimization, 3D Model Design
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access

1. Introduction
One of the most crucial parts of an aircraft is wing. A wing is a type of fin that
produces lift, while moving through air or some other fluid. The quality of the
wing design determines the overall performance of the aircraft to a large extent
[1].
The task of structural design is to design a specific wing structure, which can
meet tactical technical requirements or develop the requirements of the contract
task. This includes the plane shape of the wing surface, airfoil configuration, the
relative position of the wing body and the location of the interior of the wing.
The wing structure has several typical structural forms: Beam type, single block
type, multi-ventral plate type and hybrid type. Other wing structures are their
combination or development [2].
The design of the wing is developing through the past century. For example,
the wing of the Wright aircraft (Figure 1) is significantly different from modern
aircraft, such as Boeing 787 (Figure 2). The quantity, shape, size and material of

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J. W. Yu

Figure 1. The aircraft designed by Wright Brother.

Figure 2. Boeing 787.

the lift surfaces will affect the performance of the aircraft.

Since 1930s, NASA and its predecessor, NACA, have been at the forefront of
the design of the wing. Their development of the basic wing shapes has become
the first choice for the major aero-nautical manufacturer. They are playing a
critical role to nowadays air travel.
For this project, the task is to design and optimize a wing based on the design
task book. The goal is to design a wing with the lightest weight that can satisfy
strength, stiffness and life requirements. For an aircraft, the wing structure ac-
counts for 25% - 50% of the aircraft body mass, which accounts for 8% - 15% of
the whole aircraft quality. Also, the wing occupies 30% - 50% of the total air re-
sistance of the aircraft. According to these statistics, a suitable wing is crucial to
the performance of the whole aircraft [3].
As mentioned, the goal of designing a wing is to minimize the weight of the
wing under the premise that the wing strength meets the requirements of deflec-
tion, stiffness and strength. In this project, we involve optimization, modeling,
finite element analysis and so on, which is helpful to our understanding of air-

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craft design profession and occupation.

The traditional wing design experience is very abundant. The founder of the
wing design is mainly the American NASA and its predecessor NACA. The four
digits and the five digits airfoil library that developed by NASA has a very im-
portant place in the aviation history. Many aircraft design and airfoil are selected
directly from the airfoil.
When it comes into twenty-first Century, the design of the aircraft involves
the support of computer. Not only the structural strength of the aircraft was
guaranteed, but also the reliability and weight of the aircraft are strictly con-
trolled [4] [5] [6] [7] [8].
The corresponding intelligent materials are also being developed to seek the
rapid response of aircraft to aeroelastic changes, or the use of variable wings to
study the form of aircraft wing damage.
In a word, the aircraft wing is a vital component of the aircraft, which has
great influence on the performance of the aircraft.
This wing design requires the design of a small wing with a chord length of
200 mm, a ratio of 5 to a chord, and a sweep angle of 30 degrees.
The load of the wing is set according to the wing load and the wing area of the
Cessna 152 small aircraft. The wing is subjected to lift 100 N and resistance 50 N.
The deflection of the wing is defined according to the relative deflection of 0.08,
and the final allowable deflection is 30 mm.
The allowable stress of the wing is divided by the ultimate stress of the materi-
al by the safety factor, in which the material performance is like the table and the
safety factor is 1.5. At this time, the allowable stress is 270 Mpa (Table 1).

2. Wing Structure
According to the task requirements, we plan to design a straight beam wing. The
structure is shown below in Figure 3.
A straight beam wing is mainly consisted of skin, wing rib and wing beam.
Skin forms a streamlined outer surface of the wing that take part in the air-
frame’s force. In order to ensure the smoothness of the surface, the skin should
have sufficient lateral bending stiffness. The skin can be combined with the
stringer to form an integral panel to bear normal stress. The function of wing rib
is to form the shape of the wing profile. It is connected to the truss and skin and
provides vertical support to the truss and skin in the stiffness of its own plane.
Wing beam is a simple load bearing structure that can support shear force Q and
bending moment M [9]
In this work the process to design the wing structure is: 1) Select the airfoil

Table 1. Material properties.

Young’s Modulus (E) Passion’s ratio (v) density (p)

Material
MPa Kg/m3

LD5 Aluminum Alloy 71000 0.33 2750.0

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J. W. Yu

Figure 3. Structure of a straight beam wing [4].

shape from the airfoil library (NACA). 2) Choose the most efficient wing struc-
ture according to the conditions. 3) Design the rib on the wing structure ac-
cording to the airfoil shape. 4) Design other parts in the wing structure. 5) Op-
timize the whole structure to the wing’s weight.

3. Design Process
Wing design includes shape design and structural design. The shape of the wing
is designed according to the tactical, technical and performance requirements of
the aircraft, and the main geometric parameters of the wing are determined. The
wing structural design is according to the basis provided by the aircraft overall
design stage (including the shape design), to design a specific wing structure that
can meet all the requirements. Specifically, the design process of the wing is that
according to the original basis, choose the force form of the wing reasonably,
arrange the main force components of the wing, determine the dimensions of
the longitudinal components along the sections, and design the main force
components.
The original basis of wing design is shown in Figure 4.
There are two steps for wing structure design: proofing design and detailed
design. Proofing design include the internal arrangement of the wing, the design
of the separation plane, the selection of the structural type, the arrangement of
the main force components, the drawing of the airfoil theoretical map and the
proof drawing. Detailed design including the wing parts and components design.
That is a process from parts, components to complete set of production draw-
ings. And finish the calculation of total strength, stiffness and life of the wing.
The detailed steps are: 1) Calculation of external load and internal force. 2) In-
ternal arrangement, determine the structure type, design separation plane,
docking mode, arrange the main force components, draw the proofing map. 3)
Design calculation and design the strength of each component. 4) Draw the
theoretical map of the wing. 5) Design of wing structural elements. 6) Calculation

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 J. W. Yu

Figure 4. The original basis of wing design.

of structural strength and stiffness. 7) Draw production drawings. 8) Calculate

the fatigue life and inspection period.

4. Different Types of Wings

In modern aircraft design, wing structure must be considered in the overall
stage. So that we choose the type of wing carefully. After the overall scheme is
determined, the structural type of the components and the layout of the main
load elements are basically determined, and no modification is allowed in the
structural design.

4.1. Beam Type

There are strong wing beams in the longitudinal direction, thin skins and weak
girders. The edge section of beams is much larger than that of long truss sec-
tions. Its advantages are that the structure is simple, the opening on the skin is
convenient, the opening has little influence on the bending capacity of the
structure, and the connection is simple, and the docking point is small. The dis-
advantages are that he skin cannot play the role of bending, material utilization
is not sufficient, the skin is easy to lose stability, influence the quality of air flow,
increase resistance, and easily lead to early fatigue damage and low survivability.

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4.2. Single Block Type

For this type, the stringer is longer and stronger, the skin is thicker, and the wing
rib is denser. The section area of the general beam bar is usually not large, and
sometimes only the longitudinal wall is arranged.
The advantage of this type of wing is that the skin deformation is small, and
the air flow quality is high when aerodynamic load is applied. The material is
dispersed to the outer edge, and the bending resistance, torsional strength and
stiffness are all improved. The safety and reliability are good. The disadvantage
is that the structure is complex and sensitive to the opening and the connection
is complex because it has more joint points with the middle wing or the fuselage.

4.3. Multi-Ventral-Plate-Type
This type of wing is equipped with more longitudinal walls with thicker skin.
The thick skin bears all the bending moments. The advantage is that the flexural
material is distributed on the upper and lower edges of the section, with high
structural efficiency, large local stiffness and overall stiffness. Also, this kind of
wing have high dispersion of the force, good safety damage and high survivabil-
ity. The only disadvantage is that it is not suitable for large opening and there are
a large number of connection points with the fuselage.
The main difference between the three types of wing type of wing is that the
dispersion of the area of the positive stress element caused by bending moment
is different, so when the total area of the element is at the same time, the center
distance of the latter is higher, the structure efficiency may be higher, and the
weight may be lighter. Further analysis is needed for the specific situation.
Here we choose the beam type for this mission. For this wing we begin from
the layout of the main force components, which includes mode, quantity and
position. For main force components, they include beams, walls, stiffeners,
common ribs, stringers, etc.
Some examples of planes and their wing type data is shown below in Table
2.
The characteristics of the various wing structural types, and the relative load

Table 2. Different wing types.

Plane type F-86D Mig-15 F-104 B-707 L-29 Mirage-Ⅲ

wing type Sweep back Sweep back Straight Sweep back Straight Triangle

Relative
11.5% 10.4% 3.36% 12% 17% 4%
Thickness

Relative load
4.70 3.62 5.85 19.3 2.12 0.82
(‘105)

Effective height
91 90.5
ratio (%)

Multi ventral
Wing Structure Single block Single block Single block Beam Multi-Beam
plate

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and effective height ratio are considered purely from the structural point of view.
In fact, the choice of structural load types is largely influenced by many factors
in the overall layout of aircraft and needs comprehensive measurement. The first
aspect is about internal layout of wing, such as retractable landing gear, large
openings, etc. The second aspect is the relative position of the wing and the fu-
selage, as well as the interior of the fuselage. The third aspect is the geometric
parameters of the wing, such as swept wing, delta wing, etc.
The layout of the main force components of the wing includes quantity and
location of the main force components of the wing. The main force components
are beams, walls, stiffeners, ordinary ribs, stringers and so on. The principle of
the layout of the main force components is to ensure the bending, shear and tor-
sion caused by aerodynamic load can be transmitted to the fuselage smoothly
and reliably. At the point of concentrated force and concentrated torque, the
corresponding components (reinforced rib, auxiliary short beam, etc.) should be
arranged. The concentrated force is diffused; the distributed force after diffusion
is transmitted to the stress box section of the wing structure, and then the load is
transmitted to the fuselage at the base of the wing. Generally, the more direct the
force is, the lighter the weight of the structure is. The layout of reinforced mem-
bers should be made comprehensively to reduce weight.
Here we choose the beam type for this mission. For this wing we begin from
the layout of the main force components, which includes mode, quantity and
position. For main force components, they include beams, walls, stiffeners,
common ribs, stringers, etc.

5. Design Methods
This design relies on finite element software Ansys, COMSOL as well as graphics
software SolidWorks, Catia and Inventor. We use the finite element models to
analyze distribution of stress and strain, and then optimize the design.
The design steps are as follows:
1) COMSOL Multiphysics + SolidWorks. Because the modeling of COMSOL
is relatively simple, the interface is friendly, and the results are more content.
Therefore, the initial analysis of the use of COMSOL can let us have an intuitive
understanding of the overall distribution of the wing load. Then we can deter-
mine the position of the wing beam and the position of the wing ribs as well as
quantities of the wing ribs (Figure 5 & Figure 6).
2) Ansys + Inventor. The position of the wing beam and the web is deter-
mined by the preliminary results. After that we draw the wing structure with In-
ventor, and then we input that to Ansys (Figure 7). According to the design re-
quirements, we apply grid and loading to the model properly. The Shell unit and
Beam unit of Ansys are used to cover the plane of the Inventor (Figure 7), and
the optimization design is carried out for the body of the wing. The object in the
optimization model is to make the volume of the wing smallest. Under the cor-
responding constraints, the weight of the wing is also the lightest.

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J. W. Yu

Figure 5. Settings of COMSOL model.

Figure 6. Model outline in Ansys.

Figure 7. Mesh of the model in Ansys.

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3) Catia. After the structural parameters of each part of the wing are deter-
mined. We use Catia to draw the parts. The drawings can be produced directly if
necessary.

6. Results and Discussions

6.1. COMSOL Multiphysics Results
In COMSOL, we apply lift and drag force to certain points according to design
requirements. After calculation with the element model, we observe the stress
and strain distribution of the wing. The results show that the maximum strain of
the wing is concentrated on the 1/4 string strength. The strain on the root of the
wing is distorted and complex (Figures 8-10).
As a result, the following design can be obtained:
1) The beam type wing structure is adopted, and the beam is on the 1/4 string
length.
2) In the real wing structure, there need to be flapped and aileron, so the web
is at the 85% string length.
3) Because the wing is small, the skin can be stable without using or using less
trusses.

6.2. Ansys Results Analysis

Set the initial parameters to optimize the wing. The parameters are set as shown
in the form (Table 3 & Table 4).
The results are shown in the figures (Figures 11-16).

Table 3. Parameters and notations.

B Trusses width
H Trusses height
T1 Thickness of web
T2 Thickness of beam web
T3 Wing rib thickness
TS Thickness of skin

Table 4. Optimization results and range.

Parameter symbol Parameter name Optimization results Optimization range

B Width of trusses 18.86 mm 5 - 20 mm

H Height of trusses 5.00 mm 2 - 10 mm

T1 Thickness of web 6.62 mm 5 - 10 mm

T2 Beam web thickness 5.41 mm 5 - 10 mm

T3 Wing rib thickness 1.21 mm 0.5 - 3 mmm

TS Thickness of skin 2.23 mm 0.5 - 5 mm

DMAX Maximum pressure 86 MPa less than 270 MPa

DY Maximum deflection 30.15 mm less than 30 mm

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Figure 8. First principle strain cloud map.

Figure 9. Second principle strain cloud map.

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Figure 10. Third principle strain cloud map.

Figure 11. Stress change during optimization.

From the Ansys optimization results, we can see that all the optimization para-
meters and the optimization targets are convergent and meet the requirements.

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Figure 12. Deflection change during optimization.

Figure 13. Geometric parameter change during optimization.

Figure 14. Volume change during optimization.

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Figure 15. Stress cloud map.

Figure 16. Strain cloud map.

The stress, the strain cloud graph is reasonable, the optimization results are ef-
fective for the volume reduction and optimization [10] [11] [12].

6.3. CATIA Modeling

Wing beams, wing ribs and web plates are used as skeleton support. Because the
wings are smaller, the upper and lower edges of the wing and web are repaired
according to the skin to ensure that the aerodynamic shape of the wing is
smooth, and the wing can play its due role (Figures 17-19).

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J. W. Yu

Figure 17. Overall wing structure form.

Figure 18. Wing skeleton.

Figure 19. Wing beam.

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7. Conclusion
In this work, according to the work conditions, such as 100 Newton lift force
and 50 Newton drag force, we compare several types of wings, such as
beam-type, single-block-type and multi-ventral-plate-type. Finally, we chose
beam-type wing. Then we made the detailed design on the beam, rib, skin and
web. After structure design, we optimized the wing to reduce the weight of wing.
At last, we use Catia to draw the 3D model of detailed parts for potential realistic
production. The design and optimization for a fixed-wing UAV is finished.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this pa-
per.

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