CFD Letters 13, Issue 11 (2021) 78-86

CFD Letters
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Stress Analysis of Composite Aircraft Wing using Coupled Fluid-Structural

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, 53100, Malaysia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history: Aircraft wings are designed with very low factor of safety to keep the aircraft weight
Received 14 August 2021 minimum. Thus, for safe design of wings, stress analysis should be carried out under
Received in revised form 20 October 2021 accurately estimated aerodynamic loads and this can be achieved only through
Accepted 21 October 2021 coupled fluid-structure analysis. Moreover, modern aircraft wings are made of
Available online 21 November 2021
laminated composite structures and thus the purpose of this study is to employ ANSYS
coupled fluid-structure analysis to find the best layup of composite wing of an aircraft
that results in higher specific strength and specific stiffness. Firstly, Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis has been carried out to find the actual aerodynamic load
which is the pressure distribution around a three-dimensional wing. Then, this pressure
distribution from CFD was used as a load input for detailed static structural analysis of
the wing. Initially, strength and stiffness of an isotropic wing is evaluated and then the
material of the wing was changed to composite laminates to achieve better structural
performance with higher strength and stiffness to weight ratio. Stress analysis was
Keywords: carried out for different layups to predict the optimum layup that results in high
CFD; fluid-structure interaction; ANSYS; strength and stiffness coupled with the least weight and it was found that the wing
composites; wing made of symmetric cross-ply laminate performs the best.

1. Introduction

Composites are manufactured by combining two or more materials at macroscopic level, either
natural or artificial and are not soluble in each other. A fiber reinforced composite laminate is an
organized stacking sequence of a uni-directional composite plies that is manufactured to meet some
design requirement. Kreja [1] state that a composite layer represents an orthotropic system that have
three mutually orthogonal planes of symmetry. Due to the high specific strength and stiffness,
composite material has become a growing interest among the researchers during the last three
decades.
Modern aircrafts have major components replaced by composite material including the primary
structures. Kennedy and Martins [2] made a comparison between metal and composite wing. Based
on their study, they prove that composite wing design has reduced the weight of the aircraft about

*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jaffar@iium.edu.my (Jaffar Syed Mohamed Ali)

https://doi.org/10.37934/cfdl.13.11.7886

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34% to 40%. Due to decrement of the weight, it affects the fuel consumption also and they concluded
that the fuel can be saved up to 5% to 8% by using composite material. Lastly, changing the metal
with composite will reduce take-off gross weight 6% to 11%. Even though the characteristics of the
composite aircraft already impressive, still many researchers are keen on optimizing aircraft
structural performance by varying various parameters of composite laminates.
Nowadays with many modern tools available such as ANSYS, LS-DYNA, COMSOL. etc. that can
handle composite structural analysis, much of the work has been done on the optimization of
composite structures. Khandan et al., [3] presented a design optimization of composite plate using
Simulated Annealing and Finite Element Method to optimize safety factor by considering not only
the effect of Longitudinal and in-plane loading but also the effect of transverse shear force which had
been ignored in previous studies. Two Failure Criteria was used which are maximum stress criteria
and Tsai-Wu failure criteria. Later, Shabeer and Murtaza [4] done a stress analysis of a well modelled
composite wing aircraft to obtain best stacking sequence that produce less deformation and Von
Mises stresses using Finite Element Method. In their study Aluminium skin of wing was replaced by
Graphite/Epoxy skin, whereas other elements of the wing was maintained as aluminium.
Dillinger et al., [5] has done a study on optimizing mass of the composite wing with the influence
of aero elastic constraints and sweep angle of swept forward wings. The result from optimizer shows
small variation between balanced and unbalanced laminates and it was concluded that it is possible
to reduce the mass of the wing by using the unbalanced laminates.
Hajmohammad et al., [6] use Genetic Algorithm combined with Neural Networks function to
optimize buckling load subjected by varying stacking sequence. Zhao et al., [7] also optimized
buckling load by varying stacking sequence but by using Permutation Search Algorithm. Sharad and
Abhay [8] had done an optimization for maximum stiffness and minimum weight of laminate by using
Genetic Algorithm. Maximum failure criteria had been used to determine whether load capacity were
exceeded. The optimization had been done by varying fiber orientation, thickness of lamina and
stacking sequence.
Wang et al., [9] used the finite element model of the wing with the equivalent strength and
stiffness method. They use three-step optimization to improve structural efficiency. Static strength
and buckling are used as a constraint in this optimization strategy.
Nikbakt et al., [10] presented a detailed review paper on optimization of laminated composites
in which the objective functions, design variables, constraints and the algorithms used are highlighted
as essential parameters of these optimization approaches. Sachin et al., [11] used multi-objective
multi-laminate design optimization of carbon fibre composite wing torsion box using evolutionary
algorithm. Recently, Vijayanandh et al., [12] carried out optimization of orientation of carbon fiber
reinforced polymer based on structural analysis using finite element analysis. Dillinger et al., [13] very
recently improved his previous work on static aeroelastic stiffness optimization of a forward swept
composite wing with CFD-corrected aero loads. Very recently, similar parametric study and structural
optimization was reported for high-aspect-ratio composite wing [14-16] and composite fuselage [17].
Thus, the optimization of aircraft structures made of composite laminates is still an active field of
research. However, there seems to be limited numerical studies on stress analysis of composite wing
based on Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) module of ANSYS. The significance of the analysis based on
FSI is that the aircraft structural performance can be analyzed using actual aerodynamic load
distribution instead of simplified approximate loads based on analytical methods. Thus, in this study
the actual aerodynamic load is evaluated using the CFD and then the loads are used to study the
stresses on an aircraft composite wing using FSI module of ANSYS. Finally, various composite laminate
sequence was studied to find the optimum layup for minimum deformation and stresses in the
composite wing.

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2. Methodology

ANSYS provides access for users to couple between two fields of analysis such as fluid flow and
Structural Analysis [18]. ANSYS Workbench is one of the common platforms for solving problems that
combines different processors such as Design Modeler to design geometry, Static Structural to
analyze behavior during static loading and ANSYS (Fluent) to analyze flow.
In FSI analysis, two different solvers were used to solve the equations governing the fluid flow
and the structural analysis independently based on numerical solver. FSI approach has one-way or
two-way coupling methods based on the extent of coupling, but in both the methods, the information
for the solution is shared between the fluid-structure interfaces. In one-way FSI coupling analysis,
only the fluid pressure acting on the structure was transferred to the structure solver whereas in two-
way FSI approach displacement of the structure was also transferred to the fluid solver
simultaneously. For this study, only one-way FSI have been performed considering the large
computational costs involved in two-way FSI.
This study was performed numerically using a one-way FSI static run partitioned approach. In this
coupling method as shown in Figure 1, for fluid flow ANSYS Fluent module was used and for structural
analysis part, ANSYS Mechanical module was used. Firstly, the CFD analysis using ANSYS Fluent was
carried out until the desired convergence is reached and then the output of this calculation was
interpolated to the structural model at the interface. After that, structural analysis was carried out
using ANSYS Mechanical module until convergence was achieved.

Fig. 1. Flow process on coupled analysis

Initially the geometry of the wing was created using ANSYS Design Modeler. The wing was
assumed to be made of NACA 4415 profile and the first spar near the leading edge is placed at the
quarter of chord and the second spar is placed at three quarter of chord. The geometry is divided
into two, one that will be analyzed in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and another one will be
analyzed in static structural. The control volume around the 3D wing will be used to analyze the flow
around the wing. In the modelling of the wing, to make sure that all the surfaces are in contact with
each other, Boolean feature was used to combine all ribs and spar to become one integral part. The
skin is connected to the frame using joint feature and the wing chord and span is taken to be 1.8m
and 4.8m respectively.
The geometry was meshed first before the solution and the edge sizing was used to mesh for the
flow around the wing. The properties of the flow and solid were selected and defined in setup section

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with Reynold’s Number (Re) of 135.54 x 106 was used based on the properties at an altitude of 6000m
above sea level and with a velocity of aircraft at 100m/s. Thus, the flow in this analysis is considered
as turbulent and hence k-epsilon turbulence model has been selected. Boundary condition for this
problem is the velocity along x direction was taken as 100m/s and the iteration had been carried out
by ANSYS until the solution converged.
After the CFD part is completed, ANSYS Composite PrepPost (ACP) set up was intiated. The layup
of the composite, angle orientation and each lamina thickness were defined here. It next linked to
static structural module so that the wing can be meshed for static structural analysis. The input file
has been setup by using system coupling so that the pressure distribution from CFD is directly linked
as the input for static structural analysis. For static structural analysis, the wing surface that is
attached to the fuselage was set as fixed support resulting in a cantilever wing. Finally, the above
coupled analysis will result in total deformation and Von Mises stresses of the wing. Manual
optimization was then carried out by changing the stacking sequence in ACP tool for to find the best
layup that results in high strength and stiffness to weight ratio.

3. Results
3.1 CFD Analysis

The purpose of carrying out CFD analysis is to obtain actual pressure distribution around the wing
so that this pressure distribution obtained from CFD solution can be directly used as an aerodynamic
load to analyze structural performance of wing under Static Structural Analysis. To start with, CFD
analysis was carried out and the solution is obtained once the iteration stopped with a message
showing that the solution is successfully converged. Since the data is directly linked and applied to
the static structural analysis, there is no need to record the numerical data. The output of the CFD
solution, the pressure distribution is depicted in Figure 2 for the entire wing and the pressure profile
around the airfoil of the wing is presented in Figure 3 at an angle of attack of 10˚.

Fig. 2. Pressure distribution on wing

From Figure 3 it can be seen that positive pressure at the bottom and negative pressure at the
top of the airfoil will result in the aerodynamic loads, lift and drag. As the angle of attack increases,
the pressure distribution changes such that the pressure builds at the bottom of airfoil thus leading

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to increase in lift and drag which may be result in increase in the deformation and stresses in the
wing. With increase in angle of attack, the load steadily increases until it reaches the stalling angle of
attack and then the load starts decreasing with the separation of flow. Thus, the maximum load and
hence the maximum deformation and stresses will occur corresponding to the stalling angle of attack
which is around 18o for the NACA 4415 airfoil considered in this study.

Fig. 3. Pressure profile around the airfoil

3.2 Static Structural Analysis

As elaborated in methodology, coupled field analysis was carried out on a wing geometry to
analyze the total deformation and stresses on the wing made of Aluminium first and then the skin
material was replaced by composite material. Then later the best stacking sequence for highest
specific strength and specific stiffness is evaluated. For structural analysis the following properties
for Aluminium alloy and Graphite/ Epoxy lamina were used as given in Table 1 and Table 2
respectively [19,20].

Table 1
Properties of Aluminium alloy
Property Value
Density (r) 2800 kg/m3
Ultimate Strength (sUT) 572 MPa
Modulus of Elasticity (E) 71.7 GPa
Shear Modulus (G) 26.9 GPa
Poisson‘s ratio (n) 0.33

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Table 2
Properties of Graphite/Epoxy lamina
Property* Value
r 1600 kg/m3
s1UT 1500 MPa
s2UT 1500 MPa
E1 181 GPa
E2 10.3 GPa
E3 10.3 GPa
n12 0.28
n 13 0.28
n 23 0.6
G12 7.17 GPa
G23 3.00 GPa
G13 7.17 GPa
*
subscript 1 is the direction parallel to the fibre
subscript 2 and 3 is the direction perpendicular to the fibres

The process of transferring data from FLUENT to Static Structural was done using Fluid-Structure
system coupling. Using the pressure distribution generated from CFD analysis on the wing, static
structural analysis was carried out to obtain the total deformation and Von Mises stress on the wing
made of Aluminium material as shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5 respectively. Then similar coupled
analysis was carried out with the Aluminium skin replaced by Graphite/Epoxy laminate and the
resulting deformation and the Von-Mises stresses were compared with the Aluminium based wing.

Fig. 4. Total deformation of the wing

To find the best stacking sequence that have the best combination of high specific strength and
specific stiffness, optimization was done manually by varying fibre orientation of each lamina, both
symmetric crossply and angle ply laminate with different layup scheme were tried to arrive at the
best layup. Table 3 below summarizes results obtained for each set of stacking sequence for the
aerodynamic load at an angle of attack of 10o.

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Fig. 5. Von Mises stresses on the wing

Table 3
Effect of Composite layups on static structural behaviour of wing
Stacking sequence Total Deformation Von Mises Mass
(mm) Stresses (kg)
(MPa)
Aluminium 77.054 117.22 288.76
[0/0/0/0/0]S 19.956 216.46 165.00
[0/45/-45/45/90]S 31.361 175.93 165.00
[45/-45/45/-45/45]S 21.682 125.72 165.00
[0/90/0/90/0]S 11.422 120.39 165.00
[0/30/-30/-30/30]S 17.762 196.22 165.00
[45/-45/90/-45/-30]S 11.974 132.26 165.00
[0/30/45/-45/-30]S 18.964 205.89 165.00
[45/-30/-45/30/0]S 18.964 205.89 165.00
[90/45/-45/30/-30]S 12.086 133.46 165.00
[30/-30/45/0/90]S 12.950 141.22 165.00

It can be seen from the table that the wing skin made of Graphite/Epoxy material with symmetric
crossply layup of [0/90/0/90/0]s has the best combination of least deformation and least Von Mises
among others. From this analysis, we can also calculate the weight reduction caused by replacing
Aluminium with Graphite/Epoxy on the wing skin and thus 42.86% of weight reduction was achieved
using this composite layup. Thus, it can be concluded that this cross-ply layup is the best stacking
sequence for the wing skin with highest strength to weight ratio and stiffness to weight ratio.
Moreover next to this cross ply layup, the angle ply layup [45/-45/90/-45/-30]s has the best
combination of least deformation and Von Mises stresses with same reduction in weight as cross-ply.

3.3 Safety Factor

To assess the safety of the new design of aircraft wing with composite material and to ensure the
structural integrity of the composite wing, a safety factor (SF) can be defined as follows

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SF = 𝜎ULT / 𝜎V𝑀 (1)

where 𝜎V𝑀 is the Von Mises stresses reported in Table 3 and 𝜎ULT is the ultimate strength (as given in
the Table 1 and Table 2) of the material for the wing. The stresses experienced by the composite wing
must be less than the ultimate strength 𝜎ULT of the material for the wing to perform under the given
flying conditions without compromising its structural integrity. Safety factor greater than one means
the stresses in the structure are below the ultimate stress and hence the structure is safe. From the
Table 3 it can be noted that the safety factor for the best crossply layup of [0/90/0/90/0]s made of
Graphite/Epoxy is 12.46 whereas for the Aluminium, the safety factor is just 4.9, thus replacement
of the Aluminium wing with the composite wing is advantageous both in terms of its strength as well
as wieght.
Moreover as discussed earlier that at an angle of attack equal to 17˚ which is close to the stalling
angle of attack of the selected NACA 4415 airfoil, the pressure difference is the highest and that leads
to the maximum lift load attained at that speed. As expected, the deflection and stresses at this angle
of attack will be very high and the corresponding Von Mises stresses and deflection for the wing with
[0/90/0/90/0]s laminate made of Graphite/Epoxy is 190.41 MPa and 30.70 mm respectively, resulting
in a safety factor of 7.88. Thus for the given geometry and material, even for the case of highest load,
it can be noted that the stresses in the composite wing are still well below the ultimate stress and
thus the composite wing perform efficiently without compromising its structural integrity.

4. Conclusions

Coupled field analysis in ANSYS have been used to find the stresses and deformation on a wing
made of laminated composites. The coupled field analysis of CFD and Static Structural analysis has
been used to get the accurate aerodynamic load on the wing and hence the accurate deformation
and stresses. The comparison between isotropic Aluminium wing and laminated composite wing has
been carried out to bring out the advantages of using composites. Fiber orientation and stacking
sequence becomes the important variable in this analysis and it can be seen from the results that
composite wing has better structural performance than isotropic wing. It can also be noted from the
results, the skin made of Graphite/Epoxy, symmetric crossply layup of [0/90/0/90/0]s and angle ply
layup [45/-45/90/-45/-30]s has the highest specific strength and specific stiffness. This work can be
further extended by using the ANSYS Optimization tool optiSLang for multi-objective optimization.

Acknowledgement
This research was not funded by any grant.

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