Special Design Project: Aero 408 Lab

Static Stress Analysis of a Sailplane Wing Constructed of Composite Materials

1973
Aeronautical Engineering
California Polytechnic State University

Summary

In this paper an analytic and experimental static stress analysis of a standard class Libelle sailplane wing is outlined. The analytic static stress analysis is compiled into a computer program which indealizes the wing as a tapered, multicelled, thin-walled and nonsymmetric cylinder. Of particultar interest was the comparison of analytic and experimental shear stress distributions under a static load. Unfortunately only the experimental shear stress distributions was obtained. The comparison of analytic and experimental shear distribution is pending the debugging of the computer program. A favorable comparison would indicate a representative shear center location for a real wing. Download full report (pdf, 15.5M), Static Stress Analysis of a Sailplane Wing Constructed of Composite Materials


Libelle Wing Test Setup Above

Libelle Sailplane and Wing Instrumentation Closeup


Ronald D. Kriz
College of Engineering
Virginia Tech
http://www.esm.rkriz.net/ugr/special_design_proj.html

Revised December 10, 2004