Design of a VLA Vertical Control Surface with LRTM Technology

The present work is connected to a research project that faces the study of low-cost manufacturing technologies and processes of aeronautical structures made of composite material, referring to aircraft belonging to General Aviation (GA). In the specific, the main purpose of this work consists in the design and manufacturing of the vertical control surface of an aircraft belonging to the VLA class using Light Resin Transfer Moulding (LRTM). Starting from the geometrical characteristics of the control surface and the peculiarities of the related aircraft, the relative load distribution has been calculated according to the requirements expressed in Appendix B of CS-VLA regulations. Using a numerical simulation software for finite element analysis, the load, calculated by the procedure in question, has been used as input to the FEM model for the purpose of structural design, i.e. for the choice of the materials and of an appropriate stacking sequence. Once the model has been completely defined, it has been possible to design and to fabricate the moulds for the following phase, which consists in the production of the prototype. Following the production process, the last part of the work focuses on the preparation and the implementation of an experimental campaign that aims at verifying the quality of the infusion process (C-Scan) and of the structural properties of the component, paying attention to the comparison with the previously obtained numerical results