Parametric Modeling of a Long-Range Aircraft under Consideration of Engine-Wing Integration

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the engine position and mass as well as the pylon stiffness on the aeroelastic stability of a long-range wide-body transport aircraft. As reference configuration, DLR's (German Aerospace Center/Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt) generic aircraft configuration DLR-D250 is taken. The structural, mass, loads, and optimization models for the reference and a modified configuration with different engine and pylon parameters are set up using DLR's automatized aeroelastic design process cpacs-MONA. At first, the cpacs-MONA process with its capabilities for parametric modeling of the complete aircraft and in particular the set-up of a generic elastic pylon model is unfolded. Then, the influence of the modified engine-wing parameters on the flight loads of the main wing is examined. The resulting loads are afterward used to structurally optimize the two configurations component wise. Finally, the results of post-cpacs-MONA flutter analyses performed for the two optimized aircraft configurations with the different engine and pylon characteristics are discussed. It is shown that the higher mass and the changed position of the engine slightly increased the flutter speed. Although the lowest flutter speeds for both configurations occur at a flutter phenomenon of the horizontal tail-plane outside of the aeroelastic stability envelope.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the influence of engine position, mass, and pylon stiffness on aeroelastic stability of a long-range wide-body transport aircraft. Models for reference and modified configurations were set up using DLR's automated design process, followed by structural optimization based on flight loads analysis. Post-analysis flutter tests showed that higher mass and engine position changes slightly increased flutter speed, with both configurations experiencing flutter at the horizontal tail-plane outside the stability envelope.