Deformation control and weight optimization of civil aircraft nose structures

Abstract The airtight load is one of the main loads on civil aircraft fuselage, and the fuselage cross-section will tend to deform in a positive circle under the effect of the airtight load. Deformation varies for structures with different contour curvatures for the same airtight load and structural stiffness, especially in the contraction section of the fuselage. Therefore, the deformation of the structure can be controlled by optimizing the contour curvature without increasing the structure stiffness, resulting in a lighter overall weight for the same deformation, thus achieving weight reduction. In a civil aircraft concept design phase, structural deformation control was carried out by optimizing the nose contour, and the results showed that a structural weight reduction of approximately 4% was achieved with a maximum reduction of 23% in structural deformation.