PSI - Issue 80

Tafara E. Makuni et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 80 (2026) 105–116 Tafara E. Makuni / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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categorise the flight phases (Bektas, 2023) (Bektas, et al., 2024). If the flight phase is not known preliminary analysis of this data shows that the accelerometer on the main spar of the wing can be used to establish the flight phase. In addition to this, the DT model takes pressure values, via pressure taps, PTs, at a minimum of 3 locations as input to the model. This should correspond to a unique pressure distribution that is linked to altitude h and flight phase, as well as M ∞ and α ∞ . The DT model reconstructs/outputs the pressure distribution based on these inputs. This aerodynamic loading is then used as input to an FE model to obtain the structural response. In addition to the main inputs, the DT model should be able to take additional PTs and SGs values as inputs.

Figure 1: The framework of the DT platform showing the inputs and outputs.

2.2. Physical Entity: Aerofoil Section A DT requires a physical and virtual entity. Here the physical entity is an aerofoil section with the main spar at the quarter-chord position with a width of 6 mm. The main wing shell thickness is 3 mm, and there are stiffeners on the inside of the upper and lower surfaces to avoid distortion when in tension and compression due to the aerodynamic loading. The aerofoil section is shown in Figure 2 and has a chord length, c , of 150 mm and a width, w , of 150 mm. The material properties of the 3D printed aerofoil section are shown in Table 1 (a). The 3D printed material is part of the Stratasys Vero Family (Stratasys, 2018). Solidworks was used to calculate the structural response of the aerofoil section where; Figure 2 (a) shows the CAD model, Figure 2 (b) shows the aerofoil section installed in T1 wind tunnel at ICL, and Figure 2 (c) shows the meshed aerofoil section used for FEA modelling. The mesh properties of this aerofoil section are given in Table 1 (b).

(c)

(b)

(a)

150 mm

Base Plate

150 mm

Main Spar

Figure 2: The sectional aerofoil model assembled in the T1 wind tunnel at ICL.