Design and analysis of a structural component of a heavy transport aircraft

---

Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Havacılık ve Uzay Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: DAVUT ÇIKRIKCI

Danışman: YAVUZ YAMAN

Özet:

This thesis aims to present the design and analysis of a structural component of a heavy transport aircraft. The designed component is the “coupling“ which is the interface member connecting two frames or two stringers in the fuselage assembly. The “frames”, which are the circumferential stiffeners, are joined together by the “frame couplings”. The “stringers”, which are the longitudinal stiffeners, are joined together by the “stringer couplings”. At the preliminary design phase; the structural design principles of the frame and the stringer coupling parts are explained; which are based on the company experiences that were gained from previous aircraft projects. Afterwards, conceptual design phase is performed by structural analysis of the components. The structural analysis methods are defined and illustrated by analyzing typical examples of the frame and the stringer coupling parts. Moreover, the critical load case selection process for the structural components is explained and brief information about the load cases that the structural components will be subjected to in their service life are also given in order to have a feeling about flight regime of the aircraft. The applied loads used in structural analysis of the frame coupling and the stringer coupling components are obtained from the global finite element model of the aircraft. The verification process of the part of global finite element model where the developed components are located is also explained in the thesis. Finally, the general conclusions of the thesis are specified and the recommendations for future work are proposed for similar design and analysis efforts.