FISST - Fully Integrated Shell Structure : OPTIMIZATION OF AN AIRCRAFT FUSELAGE

Abstract: In order to reduce the costs of aircraft, the weight of the fuselage has to be reduced. This master thesis, collaboration between the Royal Institute of Technology and Airbus Group, aims to optimize a new aircraft fuselage under development. This new fuselage design, called FISST, consists of a sandwich panel to stiffen the structure instead of the stringers used in baseline fuselage. Apart from the goal of reducing the weight, the new design also has advantages during maintenance and repairing. During this project the FISST-concept has been optimized, by modeling using the Finite Element Method, in order to fulfill given requirements. The design has been evaluated for buckling, strains and displacements. Furthermore modeling methods have been validated in order to ensure that the results are accurate enough. This report shows that the FISST-concept fulfills the given requirements better than the baseline.