Preliminary design methods for Strut Braced Wing aircraft configuration

Due to more restricting performance and emissions requirements for airliners, new aircraft configurations have to be considered. Thanks to the inherently low induced drag, the UHARW (Ultra High Aspect Ratio Wing) family of configurations seems particularly promising and, among them, the SBW (Strut Braced Wing) is chosen for the development of a tailored preliminary design tool to evaluate airplane designs of this kind, based on well established legacy approaches for cantilever wings (Kroo’s method and NASA TM110392 report). Such tool is first described in detail starting from its assumptions, requirements, advantages and limitations, and then validated through comparison with both legacy methods and actual real world data. Finally a more detailed structural evaluation tool is described, and applied to a simple case study, in order to discuss and highlight further requirements and constraints of both cantilever and braced wing design.