Aeroelastic tailoring of a sailplane wing

Abstract: In this paper a process for how to perform aeroelastic tailoring of a sailplane wing is described. The analysis was carried out with the aid of a Finite Element solver and the aerodynamic loads were calculated with a potential flow solver. The design parameters of the process were mainly the number of carbon fiber plies and their orientation, but it was also possible to change the geometry of some wing features. A new carbon fiber wing, which was to be fitted onto the sailplane Ventus-2c, was modeled. The performance of the new wing was evaluated in a semi viscous wing analysis program, from which a drag polar was obtained for a number of stacking sequences. Static analyses were run for critical flight cases and stacking sequences to make sure that the wing could withstand the aerodynamic loads. In addition, the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the wing were obtained from a modal analysis. In the paper it is further shown that the fiber angles of the laminates have significant impact on the twist and the aerodynamic performance of the deformed wing. In addition, the static margin was calculated for both the configuration with the new wing and the original Ventus-2c wing.