| Summary: | Today, 3D printing equipment is reasonably priced and widely available. This allows for the design creation of more complex structures for aerospace applications, especially for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In this study, a simulated 3D-printed airframe has been evaluated for use with a blended-wing-body (BWB) UAV design. The material for the 3D-printed airframe is taken as polylactic acid (PLA) and the main focus is on the assessment of the strength and stiffness of the wing structure and the structural joints between the sub-assembly of the wing box. The design of the wing box is tailored to the Baseline-IX BWB UAV prototype that is being developed by the Flight Technology and Test Centre (FTTC), Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. The sub-assembly wing box is analyzed using the finite element method and a limit load up to 6g load factor is used. On the whole, the analysis results are showing that the wing box design is safe to be applied within the considered limit loads as all resultant stresses are below the ultimate strength of the PLA material. © 2022, The Aeronautical and Astronautical Society of the Republic of China. All right reserved.
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