e-ISSN: 2582-5208

International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE AIRCRAFT FUSELAGE FRAME

Shivakumar Pujari*1, Raju S. Matti*2
*1M.Tech Student, Machine Design, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, Bec Bagalkot, India.
*2Assistant Professor, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, Bec Bagalkot, India.
ABSTRACT
Fuselage is the main body of the airplane. It holds and carries passengers, crew and also cargo when common
transport aero plane is considered. Mostly, the fuselage is shell like structure with orthogonally hardened
stiffeners. The airplane will be in balanced condition at any instant of time during flying. The main forces acting
on fuselage are inertia loads and loads due to pressurization. This project aims at linear static analysis of
fuselage panel made of aluminium composites. The airplane is considered to be flying at an elevation of 4500
meters from the ground and the analysis is carried out with different aluminium composite materials. In the
current study, static analysis is carried out on the panel of fuselage which is subjected to air pressure.
Keywords: Fuselage, Analysis, Aluminium, Composite, Air Pressure.
I. INTRODUCTION
An airplane is a complicated structure made by extremely talented and efficient engineers. The aircrafts are
usually designed to function one or more specific requirements and these requirements must be fulfilled by the
designed and constructed airplane. Any small failure in the smallest component of the airplane may lead to
catastrophic disaster and may lead loss to lives and property. During the design of an airplane, it's very
important to find out the ideal proportion of vehicle weight and payload. But the structure designed must be
strong enough to operate in exceptional circumstances. And along with the strength, durability of the structure
has also adequate importance. And also, if any of the part fails, instead of resulting in catastrophic failure of the
entire aircraft, it must land safely on to the earth place. The very first purpose of an airplane is to carry
commercial or military payload from one place to another. The portion of the airplane which houses the
passengers and payload is referred to as fuselage. Fuselages vary greatly in size and configuration. The fuselage
is subjected to large concentrated forces such as the wing reactions, landing gear reaction, empennage reaction
etc. In addition to these loads, it is also subjecting to inertia forces subjected due to size and weight, internal
pressures due to high altitude of flight. Since the function of the aircraft structure is to carry passengers and
commercial or military payload, the structure has to be built with light material but giving strength to it. This
requirement, in most of the aero planes, gives rise to use of thin film structures. In these thin film structures,
the outer body is made of thin, light weight sheets and these sheets are supported by longitudinal and
crosswise stiffeners. These stiffeners help in resisting bending and compression loads and help to upkeep the
shape and size of the fuselage.
II. METHODOLOGY
 Creation of CAD Model for the fuselage section of aircraft using CATIA V5
 Generation of FE Model based on the CAD model generated, using ANSYS
 Assigning Materials and properties for the generated FE model
 Application of Loads and Boundary conditions based on the flight condition chosen
 Analysis of the FE Model with Loads and Boundary Conditions using ANSYS
 Extraction of results after completion of analysis and results comparison
III. MODELING AND ANALYSIS
Figure 1 shows the Finite Element model of the fuselage panel. The modelling has been done with the help of
modelling software CATIA v5 and is exported to Ansys. It consists of skin, crack stoppers, panel stiffeners and
bulkhead assembly.

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com

Figure 1: FE model of fuselage panel

Material Properties
The materials used for the analysis are Al7075/SiC (5%), Al6061/SiC (6%), Al6061/Al 2O3 (5%), Al7075/TiC
(5%). Table 1 represents the properties of materials applied to the fuselage model.
Table 1. Material Properties for the AMC composites
Density Youngs Modulus YS UTS
Material Poisson's Ratio
(kg/m3) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)

Al7075/SiC (5%) 2830 72300 0.3 319 330

Al6061/SiC (6%) 2730 72100 0.29 182 193.2

Al6061/Al2O3 (5%) 2780 72300 0.31 164 178

Al7075/TiC (5%) 2750 72200 0.3 328 345

Calculations
Table 2 gives the details of fuselage panel.
Table 2. Panel Details
Fuselage radius r 975 mm

Skin thickness t 1.8 Mm

Length of panel L 1500 Mm

Breadth of panel B 850 Mm

The density of air at an elevation of 4500 m = 0.771 kg/m 3
For aircrafts the mach number considered is 0.8. At an elevation of 4500m, the speed of sound reduces to
322.200 m/s. Therefore,
Aircraft speed = mach no * speed of sound
= 0.8 * 322.2
= 257.760 m/s
Pressure (Pa)
Where,
ρ = Air density (kg/m3)
v = Aircraft speed (m/s)
Therefore,
Pd = 0.5 * 0.771 * (257.760)2

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
= 25612.7 Pa = 0.0256 MPa
Considering a design load factor of 2, the final pressure applied on the panel will be
( )
( )
Pd is the net air pressure enforced on to the skin of the fuselage for the ana1ysis.
Now these pressure values achieved are employed to compute the hoop stress. The equation for hoop stress
computation is

Where,
P = pressure or load applied
r = radius of the panel
t = thickness of the panel

The hoop stress computation results achieved are availed to calculate the net load enforced on to the panel.
We know that,
Load = stress * area of cross section
= 27.7333 * 1500 * 1.8
= 74879.91 N
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The analysis was carried out for the above discussed FE Model with the loads and boundary conditions
connected to it. The images given below illustrate the outcomes achieved from the static analysis.
4.1 Total Deformation plots

Figure 2: Total Deformation plot for composite Al7075/5 wt.% SiC

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Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com

Figure 3: Total Deformation plot for composite Al7075/5 wt.% TiC

Figure 4: Total Deformation plot for composite Al6061/5 wt.% Al2O3

Figure 5: Total Deformation plot for composite Al6061/6 wt.% SiC

The plots show that the maximum deformation is about 6.9mm and is seen mostly in the skin or the sheet metal
used in the panel. This indicates that the stiffeners used improve the strength of the panel and make it stable
under heavy loads.
The Table 3. gives comparison of maximum total deformation for all four composite materials.

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Table 3: Maximum total deformation values for the composite materials
Material Total Deformation (mm)
Al7075/SiC (5%) 6.929
Al7075/TiC 6.9386
Al6061/Al2O3 (5%) 6.8971
Al6061/SiC (6%) 6.9786
Table 3. shows that the lowest deformation is seen for the composite material Al6061/Al2O3. This is because of
the higher young’s modulus of the composite due to the addition of Al2O3 reinforcement which has a higher
hardness and overall higher strength when compared to other reinforcements. The largest deformation is seen
for the composite Al6061/SiC which indicates a lower bonding between the matrix and the reinforcement.
4.2 Von Mises Stress

Figure 6: Von Mises Stress plot for composite Al7075/5 wt.% SiC

Figure 7: Von Mises Stress plot for composite Al7075/5 wt.% TiC

Figure 8: Von Mises Stress plot for composite Al6061/5 wt.% Al2O3
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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com

Figure 9: Von Mises Stress plot for composite Al6061/6 wt.% SiC
Table 4 compares the maximum von mises stress values for composite materials.
Table 4: Maximum von mises stress values for the composite materials
Material Von Mises Stress (MPa)
Al7075/SiC (5%) 864.79
Al7075/TiC 864.79
Al6061/Al2O3 (5%) 861.07
Al6061/SiC (6%) 868.48
The von mises stress plots (Fig. 6 to Fig. 9) and Table 4. show that the maximum stress in the panels is more
than 860 MPa and is seen mostly around the rivet holes of the stiffened panel. This could be due to the
intersection of the load paths in the panel at the rivet holes. At closer inspection it can be seen that the high
stress is seen as a singular event which indicates that it does not affect the performance of the panel and apart
from that the range of stress can be seen between 0 and 290MPa which is less than the yield strength of
composite materials AMC Al7075/5 wt.% SiC and AMC Al7075/5 wt.% TiC. But other two composites AMC
Al6061/5 wt%Al2O3 & AMC Al6061/6 wt.% SiC will not withstand as their yield strength is less.
4.3 Maximum principal stress

Figure 10: Maximum Principle Stress plot for composite Al7075/5 wt.% SiC

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International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com

Figure 11: Maximum Principle Stress plot for composite Al7075/5 wt.% TiC

Figure 12: Maximum Principle Stress plot for composite Al6061/5 wt.% Al2O3

Figure 13: Maximum Principle Stress plot for composite Al6061/6 wt.% SiC
The table 4 compares the maximum von mises stress values for composite materials.
Table 5: Maximum principal stress values for the composite materials
Material Maximum Principal Stress (MPa)
Al7075/SiC (5%) 655.91
Al7075/TiC 655.91
Al6061/Al2O3 (5%) 661.12
Al6061/SiC (6%) 655.37

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 e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:03/Issue:09/September-2021 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
The table 5 gives the Maximum principal Stress values for the composites Al7075/SiC, Al7075/TiC,
Al6061/Al2O3 and Al6061/SiC. It can be seen that the highest maximum principal stress is seen for the
composite material Al6061/Al2O3. This is because of the higher young’s modulus of the composite due to the
addition of Al2O3 reinforcement which has a higher hardness and overall higher strength when compared to
other reinforcements. Also, since the stress values for the panel with materials Al6061/Al 2O3 and Al6061/SiC
exceed the yield and ultimate strength of the materials these materials can’t be considered
V. CONCLUSION
In present work, a fuselage panel was dealt for analysis. The fuselage panel was modelled, discretized and
analyzed to evaluate its static strength for different materials. It can be consolidated as below depending on the
outputs obtained.
 The deformation obtained in the fuselage panel for the loading condition is about 6.9 mm and can be
reduced by increasing number of stiffeners.
 For the given loading conditions, the aluminium composites Al6061/Al 2O3 and Al6061/SiC reveal a very
high stress values and the panel experiences failure.
 The best material from the analysis performed and for the given conditions is Al7075/SiC with 5 wt.% SiC
reinforcement.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am extremely grateful to Prof. R. S. Matti for his significant direction, inspiration with his patience and
knowledge, whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way. I attribute the level of my Master degree to
his encouragement and effort.
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LoughboroughUniversity,Loughborough,Leicestershire,LE113TU,UK, journal on thin walled structures
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[2] M.Kadkhodayan, M.Maarefdoust Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of
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[3] Eirik Byklum a, Eivind Steen, Jørgen Amdahl Det Norske Veritas, Maritime Technology and Production
Centre, Veritasveien 1, N-1322 Høvik, Norway Department of Marine Structures, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology,N7491 Trondheim, Norway ELSEVIER,23 December 2003.
[4] William L.Ko and Raymond H.Jackson, Compressive Buckling analysis of Hat – Stiffened panel, Dryde
Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California, (NASA technical memorandum 4310), 1991.
[5] D Quinn, A Murphy and L Cervi Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal
of Aerospace Engineering 2011 225: 791, 7 June 2011.
[6] Mustafa Osaka, Adrian Murphy, Sjoerd van der Veen,Professor, University of Gaziantep, Turkey,
Lecturer, Queen’s University of Belfast, UK, Development Engineer, Alcan Aerospace, France, 25th
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