Reliability analysis for a hypersonic aircraft’s wing spar
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology
ISSN: 0002-2667
Article publication date: 1 February 2019
Issue publication date: 17 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a novel structural reliability analysis scheme with considering the structural strength degradation for the wing spar of a generic hypersonic aircraft to guarantee flight safety and structural reliability.
Design/methodology/approach
A logarithmic model with strength degradation for the wing spar is constructed, and a reliability model of the wing spar is established based on stress-strength interference theory and total probability theorem.
Findings
It is demonstrated that the proposed reliability analysis scheme can obtain more accurate structural reliability and failure results for the wing spar, and the strength degradation cannot be neglected. Furthermore, the obtained results will provide an important reference for the structural safety of hypersonic aircraft.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed reliability analysis scheme has not implemented in actual flight, as all the simulations are conducted according to the actual experiment data.
Practical implications
The proposed reliability analysis scheme can solve the structural life problem of the wing spar for hypersonic aircraft and meet engineering practice requirements, and it also provides an important reference to guarantee the flight safety and structural reliability for hypersonic aircraft.
Originality/value
To describe the damage evolution more accurately, with consideration of strength degradation, flight dynamics and material characteristics of the hypersonic aircraft, the stress-strength interference method is first applied to analyze the structural reliability of the wing spar for the hypersonic aircraft. The proposed analysis scheme is implemented on the dynamic model of the hypersonic aircraft, and the simulation demonstrates that a more reasonable reliability result can be achieved.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61773204) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Grant NO. NJ20160022).
Citation
Wang, Y., Shao, P., Wu, Q. and Chen, M. (2019), "Reliability analysis for a hypersonic aircraft’s wing spar", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 91 No. 4, pp. 549-557. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEAT-11-2017-0242
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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