International Journal of Mechanical and Production

Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD)

ISSN (P): 2249-6890; ISSN (E): 2249-8001
Vol. 8, Issue 1, Feb 2018, 327-332
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd

STRESS ANALYSIS ON COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT

WINDOW BLEED (TINY) HOLE

K SHIVA SHANKAR & NIRMITH KUMAR MISHRA

Assistant Professor, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, MLR Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the stresses and stress concentration phenomenon around the window bleed hole of
Airbus A380 aircraft. The Analytical solution of the stress concentrations is determined at different conditions using
Finite Element Analysis ANSYS.

KEYWORDS: Airbus A380, Aircraft window, FEA & Stress Concentration

Received: Nov 28, 2017; Accepted: Dec 18, 2017; Published: Jan 05, 2018; Paper Id.: IJMPERDFEB2018036

INTRODUCTION

Original Article
Window seat of the aircraft is the favorite seat of almost all of us. The normal people will just see scenery
from aircraft window. But, we aircraft nerds observe various things of aircraft such as movement of various
elements of aircraft wings such as flaps, ailerons, aircraft engine, etc.

This small hole is known as breather hole or bleed hole. There are mainly two purposes of this hole

• Controlling moisture and

• Equalizing pressure difference

The small air gap is present between outer pane & middle pane. This tiny bleed hole lets moisture escape
from air gap &prevent aircraft window by fogging up or by frosting. And let passengers enjoy the outer scenery.

As stated breather hole also helps to equalize the pressure difference. As aircraft ascends atmospheric
pressure decreases&cabin pressure is maintained by the cabin pressure stabilizer system as outer atmospheric low
pressure is not good for human health. This causes a pressure difference between the cabin and the atmosphere.
This produces lots of physical stress on aircrafts window which can damage aircraft windows. So to prevent this
damage breather hole is used. Breather hole equalizes the pressure difference between inner & outer aircraft
window pane by releasing some amount of pressure in the air gap. So, outer pane takes lots of pressure & middle
pane acting fail safe. The outer pane got damaged due to some reason air gets leaked from breather hole&prevent
middle pane by damaging.

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328 K Shiva Shankar & Nirmith Kumar Mishra

Figure 1: Windows Nomenclature

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE AIRCRAFT WINDOW BLEED (TINY) HOLE

The above figure.1 small window hole is actually called as bleed (tiny) holes, and its edged between 2 other panes
of Acrylic material, It means that when we look through an airplane window, you’re actually peering through the three
different panes.

The first of these panes – the one you can touch and dirty up with fingerprints – is called a scratch pane.
The middle pane is the one with the bleed hole, and the whole system is completed by the outer pane - the most important
one, since it protects you from the pressure difference outside.

Before we go into how these windows work, though, it’s important to understand a bit about how air pressure
changes when you’re flying.

So, that means that if the outer pane somehow was broken by debris, we'd still have the middle pane to protect us
from the lack of air pressure outside. Sure, it'd have a small hole in it, but that's nothing the plane's pressurization system
couldn't compensate for.

While this tiny hole plays an important role in keeping us safe, it also helps keep the window panes from fogging
up a result of the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the cabin – allowing us to stare out into the
clouds.

The determination of stress at each nodal point within a structure is called structural analysis. Stress analysis is
help to find out the directions of stresses at different points in the structure and locating the weak nodes where maximum
stress concentration happens. This idealization of stresses is known as stress concentration. Stress concentration is
measured using Stress Factor, defined as the ratio of maximum stress to the nominal stress and is given by

For normal stresses and shear stresses.

Impact Factor (JCC): 6.8765 NAAS Rating: 3.11

Stress Analysis on Commercial Aircraft Window Bleed (Tiny) Hole 329

Figure 2: Aircraft at Diffetent Altitude Cruise Condition

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Stress Analysis was done to obtain the maximum stress concentration for Plexiglas and Acrylic Materials which is
at different flight conditions with pressure differences in ground to sea level at pressure 12 psi and high altitude conditions
pressure at 14.7 psi. The results are varied from ground conditions to high altitude conditions were listed below figure 5 to
Figure 12.

MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Material Used For Window: Plexiglas

SI NO Plexiglas Properties
1. Young's Modulus Pa 2.9e+009
2. Poisson's Ratio 0.37
3. Density 1186 kg m3
4. Tensile strength 80mpa
5. Modulus of elasticity 3300 mpa
6. Compressive yield stress 110 mpa
7. Shear modulus 1700 mpa

Model Statistics
Nodes 25603
Elements 13826
Number of Nodes and Elements Obtained For FEA Model

• The modeling is done using CATIA V5 and the design specifications were taken from Airbus A380 window with
bleed tiny hole diameter 0.7 to 6 mm.

Figure 3: CATIA Model

• The model isimported in ANSYS workbenchanalysisperformedstatic structural analysisupdated engineering data

withmaterialproperties and donemechingwithelementedgelength 1 and usedtetra type of mesh. The total number
of nodes25603 and the number of elements13826.

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330 K Shiva Shankar & Nirmith Kumar Mishra

Figure 4: FEA Meshed Model

Figure 5: The Maximum Principal Stress

• At sea level the atmospheric pressure 12 PSI

Figure 6: The Equivalent Von Misses Stress

Figure 7: The Stress Intensity

Figure 8. The Total Deformation

• The stress concentrations on window bleed hole at high altitude pressure at 14.7 psi

Impact Factor (JCC): 6.8765 NAAS Rating: 3.11

Stress Analysis on Commercial Aircraft Window Bleed (Tiny) Hole 331

Figure 9: Total Deformation

Figure 10: Equivalent Von Misses Stress

Figure 11: Maximum Principal Stress

Figure 12: Strain Intensity

STRESS CONCENTRATION RESULTS

SI No At different cabin pressure condition

Max Stress Concentration Max Stress concentration (N/m2)
(N/m2) at 100000 pa 14.7 psi At 12 psi
1. Total Deformation 2.3498e-7 1.9442e-7
2. Max Principal stress 1.0525e5 87053
3. Stress Intensity 9.1813e-5 7.5963e-5
Equivalent Von
4. 1.6838e5 1.3931e5
misses stress

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332 K Shiva Shankar & Nirmith Kumar Mishra

CONCLUSIONS

The following are the conclusions deciphered from the results obtained by Finite Element Analysis,

The present method of study helps to analyze the stress concentration around a blended Hole with circular
corners, which can be further utilized to study for other geometry as well.

Maximum Stress Concentration at deformation at sea level is 2.3498e-7 N/m2 and at the pressure 14.7 psi, the
max stress is 1.9442e-7 & occurs at the bleed hole at high altitude conditions. The aircraft window has a less value of
maximum stress concentration factor as compared to bleed hole, because of more curved corners locations. The maximum
stress concentration occurred around the window bleed hole while the cabin pressure increased at high altitudes.

REFERENCES

(1) R.J.H Wanhill (2002). Milestone Case Histories in Aircraft Structural Design. National Aerospace Laboratory. NLR-TP-2002-
521

(2) T. Swift (1987). Damage tolerance in pressurized fuselages. 11th Plantema Memorial Lecture. New Materials and Fatigue
Resistant Aircraft Design (ed. D L Simpson) pp 1 – 7. Engineering Materials Advisory Services Ltd., Warley, UK

(3) K. Arun Prasath & R. Deepak Joel Johnson, Scrutiny of Machine Assignment in Various Intra-Cell Layout in Cellular
Manufacturing Using Automation Studios, International Journal of Applied Engineering Research and Development
(IJAERD), Volume 5, Issue 4, November - December 2015, pp. 1-8

Impact Factor (JCC): 6.8765 NAAS Rating: 3.11