STRUCTURAL DESIGN AND TESTING OF A TAILORED SKIN SINGLE DUCT (TSSD) FIN APPLICATION

Abstract

In order to increase the efficiency of air travel and to reach the goals of the European Strategy Flightpath 2050, the fuel consumption of modern airplanes has to decrease significantly. One approach towards a more ecological aircraft design is the boundary layer laminarization trough Hybrid Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) technology that reduces the aerodynamic resistance by enlarging the laminar flow region. A promising way to integrate the HLFC method into an aircraft structure is the chamberless so called Tailored Skin Single Duct (TSSD) concept developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In the following text the makeup of the system is outlined and the applied boundary conditions are presented. The aerodynamic concept is discussed and the undertaken experiments to characterize and configure the outer skin are explained. Due to the porous outer skin a sealing strategy is required and experiments were carried out to find passable material properties. That is also driven by the idea to make the system detachable for service and maintaining duties. Since the new design comes with fewer restrictions to the underlying structure compared to the state of the art chamber-setup, an optimization tool was developed and used to find an efficient makeup.