Can we use buckling to design adaptive composite wings?

Abstract. In aeronautics, buckling has long been considered as a structural phenomenon to be avoided, because characterized by large out-of-plane displacements and therefore by losing the ability to sustain the designed loads. Several recent studies show the possibility to allow composite stiffened panels of primary aeronautical components to work in the post-buckling field so to potentially reduce the structural weight. The present study aims to control buckling behavior of composite structural components for future adaptive wings using novel tailorable and effective mechanisms. Instead of the traditional design against buckling, the idea is to use the nonlinear post-buckling response to control stiffness changes which redistribute the load in the wing structure. Numerical studies are at first conducted on a composite plate and then implemented in a simplified thin-walled composite wing box, where stiffness changes is controlled using buckling.