Aircraft Fairing Pin-Coupling to Reduce Drag and Noise
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for supporting a fairing on an aircraft's main wing lead to increased air resistance and noise due to gap formation between the fairing's end edge and the wing's surface, while attempts to improve stiffness result in weight increments and stress on the primary load transmission system.
Innovation Solution
The fairing is supported using a pin-coupling mechanism between the most outboard fitting and the outer wing fitting, positioned on the outboard side of the joining structure, allowing relative rotation and reducing the cantilever range, thus maintaining the end edge proximity to the wing surface without increasing weight or stress.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the fairing is supported in a cantilever manner from a position on the most outboard side to the end edge, then the end edge can be positioned close to the lower surface of the main wing, but the fairing warps under pressure difference load causing gap formation and increased air resistance
Solution Approach 1:
A seal member is introduced as an intermediary element between the end edge of the fairing and the lower surface of the main wing. This seal member fills and seals the gap that forms due to fairing warping, preventing airflow disturbance and eliminating the harmful effect of air resistance and noise while allowing the fairing to maintain its cantilever support structure.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the number of stiffeners is increased to suppress fairing deformation, then the end edge remains close to the lower surface of the main wing, but the weight of the fairing increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing stiffeners to prevent deformation, a seal member is introduced as a mediator that accommodates the deformation by filling the resulting gap. This approach maintains fairing stiffness at original levels while preventing the harmful effects of gap formation, thereby avoiding weight increase.
3Device complexity
If the most outboard support member is fixed to the joining structure for joining center wing and outer wing, then the support structure is simplified, but the load transmission system of the primary structure is influenced
Solution Approach 1:
The most outboard support member is extracted from the primary structure's load transmission system by positioning it on the outboard side of the joining structure between the center wing and outer wing. This separation allows the support member to function independently without interfering with the primary load path, while still providing necessary support for the fairing.
Data Source
AI summary
An aircraft comprising a fuselage; a main wing provided on a fuselage lower side and including a center wing and an outer wing; and a fairing covering at least a lower surface of the center wing, and a seal interposed between an end edge in a right-left direction of the fairing and an outer wing lower surface. In the aircraft, a most outboard fitting located on a most outboard side out of fittings respectively provided at a plurality of positions in the right-left direction of the fairing, and an outer wing fitting provided on the outer wing are pin-coupled via a pin or pins extending along a front-rear direction. The outer wing fitting is coupled to the outer wing at a position on an inboard side with respect to the end edge and other than a position of a joining structure for joining the center wing and the outer wing.