Accelerated, hyper-accurate force modelling leads to far more efficient airliner designs

Greener airliners need to be lighter so they burn less aviation fuel. Yet aircraft must remain strong enough to withstand any forces they are likely to meet in flight. Researchers from the ALPES project have worked out how to predict those loads quickly, and with unprecedented accuracy, allowing more innovative aircraft designs to be conceptualised.

Anybody whose holiday jet has flown through turbulence will be aware that aircraft are not flying in a benign, friendly medium. The air is awash with swirling winds, temperature gradients and weather patterns that can cause the air supporting the plane to move violently, exerting strong forces, or loads, on the aircraft's structure. Similarly, manoeuvres that the aircraft has to make - such as banking to change course, climbing or landing - exert loads on its structural components.

Further details: Accelerated, hyper-accurate force modelling leads to far more efficient airliner designs