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Thursday, June 11, 2009 - 9:00 AM
LAT5.2

Future Aluminum Airframes by Concurrent Optimization of Innovative Material, Design and Manufacturing

F. Eberl, Alcan Rhenalu, Issoire Cedex, France; F. Bron, J. C. Ehrström, Alcan, Voreppe, France

Achieving the ambitious weight-cost targets of the airframers will require non-conventional solutions.  Material property improvements alone, whatever the material nature, are not likely to bring the gap the airline companies expect. Tomorrow’s aircraft will be an optimized combination of innovations in materials, design and manufacturing.

High performance aluminum alloys combined with innovative design and new manufacturing practices constitute a very interesting recipe for new airframes reducing significantly both cost and weight. Some solutions have already been proposed like stringer bonding (significant improvement in fatigue and damage tolerance), skin crenellations (cost-free improvement in crack propagation), top-hat stringers (reduced weight and cost in top wing covers), friction stir welding (reduced buy/fly). New solutions are also proposed such as 45° stringer layout (weight reduction).

In this presentation, the new combinations of alloy, design concept and manufacturing method proposed by Alcan are presented and the resulting weight reduction is assessed with a global fuselage model. The focus is also put in the use of optimization techniques to push each concept/material combination to its maximum potential.


Summary: New combinations of alloy, design concept and manufacturing method proposed by Alcan are presented and the resulting weight reduction is assessed with a global fuselage model.