Design and fabrication of stereolithography‐based aeroelastic wing models

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a novel method to design and fabricate aeroelastic wing models for wind tunnel tests based on stereolithography (SL). This method can ensure the structural similarity of both external and internal structures between models and prototypes.Design/methodology/approach – An aluminum wing‐box was selected as the prototype, and its natural modes were studied by FEA and scaled down to obtain the desired dynamic behavior data. According to similarity laws, the structurally similar model was designed through a sequential design procedure of dimensional scaling, stiffness optimization and mass optimization. An SL model was then fabricated, and its actual natural modes was tested and compared with the desired data of the prototype.Findings – The first two natural frequencies of the model presented strong correlation with the desired data of the prototype. Both the external and internal structures of the model matched the prototype closely. The SL‐based method can sig...