Passive Gust Loads Alleviation in a Truss-Braced Wing Using Integrated Dampers

Gust load cases tend to be critical for sizing the wing components and therefore methods of gust loads alleviation are necessary in order to reduce the overall weight of the wing structure. In this paper a method of gust loads alleviation for a truss-braced wing will be introduced which uses linear, rotational, viscous dampers co-located at the hinge joints connecting the truss structure to the wing to provide damping and thereby loads relief to the stress levels during a ”1-cosine” gust. The aeroelastic model is based on the NASA/Boeing SUGAR VOLT truss-braced wing and MSC.Nastran is used throughout the study to compute the gust response. It is found that large values of torsional viscous damping coefficient are required in order to provide moderate loads relief across the wing. Furthermore, it is found that a damper placed at the strut-fuselage joint is more beneficial than a damper located at the strut-wing joint due to its consistent performance across a range of gusts.