Strut-Braced Wing Modelling with a Reduced Order Beam Model

In recent years there has been much interest in the study of strut-braced wings, as they potentially offer the opportunity to design lightweight wings with increased wingspan. This work includes NASA’s development of a strut-based configuration as part of the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) project. Optimisation strategies, based on linear structural models have been proposed to size such a wing. Here, a simple sizing study is conducted on the SUGAR planform using empirical formula and a linear Nastran structural model. The resulting wing is then analysed using a novel nonlinear structural solver to assess the effect of including geometric nonlinearities on the predicted wing response. It is shown that for the maximum stress levels considered geometric nonlinearity has only a slight effect on the deflections of the sized wing
model.