Understanding the influence of wing to pylon connection strategies on component sizing

There exists numerous techniques for connecting an aircraft’s power plant to its supporting structure, the pylon, and for connecting the pylon to the wing. This paper investigates how two connection strategies employed in wide body commercial aircraft with fan mounted and core mounted power plants affect the sizing of the wing and pylon for the same loading. Sizing of the pylon in isolation is investigated and compared to results for when sized with the wing. Eighty-eight load cases, including flight, landing and those generated by the power plant are selected for the sizing studies. Static aeroelastic analysis of a reduced order aircraft model provides the flight loads. Free sizing the thickness of components is then performed. Results show that the sized pylon and wing with connections for a fan mounted power plant system are 1.7% lighter than that for a core mounted system. Pylons sized with the wing for fan and core mounted power plants are found to be 10.3% and 12.7% heavier than those sized in isolation. These investigations contribute towards wider work to develop whole aircraft models for static and dynamic aeroelastic analysis, to support combined aircraft and engine design.