ECTS - University of Pisa
The student who successfully completes the course will have the ability to compute the distribution of stress for typical aerospace structures (wing-boxes, fuselages) adopting the elementary theory approach and the forces method;
will be able to demonstrate a solid knowledge of the buckling behavior of compressed structures; will be aware of the energetic approaches to the study of structural problems;
will be aware of the approach to structural problems based on the use of the finite element method.
The evaluation is based only on the verification executed during the examination (oral).
There is not a weighting procedure to establish the final score.
Course Contents
( I ) – Basic Structural Analysis – Static (October-December)
Introduction to structural mechanics
Notes and exercises on basic elasticity
Beams in bending, shear and torsion
Principles of aerospace structures construction
Bending, shear and torsion of thin-walled tubes
Stresses in multicell tubes
Discrete models of aerospace structures (wing-box, fuselage)
Effects of axial constraint in the aerospace structures
Correction of the elementary theory results
Notes and exercises on matrix method of structural analysis (Force Method and Displacements Method)
( II ) – Analysis of Aerospace Structures – Static (February - April)
Notes and exercises on energy methods of structural analysis
Theory of thin plates
Theory of structural instability (buckling of beams, plates and stiffened panels)
Crippling of compressed structures (crippling of beams, plates and stiffened panels)
( III ) – Introduction to Finite Element Technique (April - May) – NASTRAN-PATRAN codes
Basic notes on the FE discretization procedure
Modeling of beam structures (static analyses)
Modeling of plates and stiffened panels (static analyses)
Modeling of typical aircraft structures (static analyses of fuselages and/or wing-boxes)
Introduction to Linear Buckling Analysis (beams, thin plates, stiffened panels)
Introduction to Modal Analysis of structures (beams, thin plates)
Oral.
During the exam the student must solve some typcal problems relevant to course contents.
At the end of the solution phase (typically 2 or 3 hours), some questions can be asked to clarify the contents of student work.
The teacher suggests to attend the lessons.
The course contents are very important and often some examples of application are described during the lessons.
The examples often refers to typical exercises of exams.
