Structural analyses of orthogrid fuselage panel for integrated Ku-band SatCom antenna

Abstract

The aim of this work is to describe the structural analysis of a multifunctional aircraft fuselage panel. The structure of the panel has an embedded antenna tiles. The panel consists of UniDirectional (UD) carbon fibre reinforced composite skin stiffened with ortho-grid ribs, and a transparent skin window made using UD glass fibre reinforced composite. The orthogrid structure is a structural reinforcement but also the antenna tiles support. The presented work proposes a numerical multiscale strategy. The laminate is simulated with solid elements, in order to capture the real kinematics of the material, but several laminas are condensed in a single finite element. The performance of each lamina is obtained using the Serial-Parallel (SP) mixing theory. The specific formulations developed have been very useful to identify and study the mechanical performance of these new structures and the localization of unknown and un-predicted hot-spots in the structure.