Numerical Investigation on the Static and Dynamic Behaviour of an Additive Manufactured UAV’s Horizontal Tail

In recent years, the advancement of new manufacturing technologies has greatly influenced engineering applications. Among these, the additive manufacturing technology has been progressively applied to aircraft structures design and production, as it allows the effective optimization of the strength and the outstanding reduction of the weight in structural components. The research activity presented in this paper is focused on the static and dynamic numerical verification of the horizontal tail of an UAV, entirely Designed for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) with Technopolymers. A proper selection of a variable internal infill has been introduced to reduce the overall weight of the structural component, while static and dynamic numerical analyses, simulating low-speed impacts, have been adopted to evaluate the structural strength and the ability of the proposed configuration to withstand damage onset and evolution due to in-service loads and impact events. The obtained numerical results indicate that the structural components Designed for Additive Manufacturing can be considered effective in terms of weight reduction and they are characterised by stresses significantly below the failure limits of the proposed techno Polymer. They also demonstrate good resistance of the proposed structural components to low-speed impacts without compromising the overall structural performance of components selves. This study provides solid bases for increasing the use of Additive Manufacturing technologies in the aviation industry.