Investigation of Aluminum and Composite Aircraft Wings Under the Influence of Aerodynamic Forces and their Effects on Environmental Impacts

Subject Areas : Journal of Environmental Friendly Materials

S Ebadi ¹ , K Shahbazi ² , E Anbarzadeh ³

1 - School of Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahvaz, Iran
2 - School of Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahvaz, Iran
3 - School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2021-03-09 Accepted : 2021-06-07 Published : 2021-06-01

Keywords:

Abstract :

Today, many industries, including the aerospace industry, have been influenced by materials technology development. Aircraft wing structures are generally designed using pure aluminum. Still, in recent years, due to their light weight, composites are used to reduce the overall weight of the structure and lower the consumption of fossil fuels in an aircraft. In this study, the design and analysis of aluminum and composite aircraft wings were done using ANSYS software and are compared. The results show that by using the composite wing instead of the aluminum one, fuel consumption was reduced, bringing positive effects on environmental impacts. According to the results, a 37% reduction in the weight of the composite structure compared to that of aluminum leads to increased aerodynamic efficiency, improved wing performance, reduced fuel consumption and emissions, positive environmental impacts, and reduced construction costs. This is due to the unique properties of composite materials, such as the good power to air ratio and their high flexibility.

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