Angled spar battery-wing system for large all-electric aircraft

Abstract

An unconventional structural design is proposed for a battery-housing wing of a large electric aircraft. Locating the batteries in the wing is beneficial for aircraft range, however, it poses a number of additional requirements, with the most constraining being the necessity of regular battery replacement. To enable that, this work proposes using prismatic battery packs and replacing ribs with their truss counterparts and angled spars. This provides an unobstructed path for battery extraction while allowing the wing to remain structurally stable. To size the wingbox, finite element-based linear buckling and stress analyses are performed, and an aeroelastic behaviour estimation method is developed, verified and employed. The resultant wing is fully strength-constrained, 8-13% heavier than the baseline, and capable of satisfying the novel battery-related requirements. A subsequent redesign to address the excessive stiffness and mass is proposed.