Composite Floor Plate Spacer Design for Aircraft Weight and Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current composite floor plates in aircraft construction face issues with weight optimization, local damage from dynamic loads, and reduced load-bearing capacity due to resin reduction, leading to structural instability and increased maintenance needs.
Innovation Solution
A composite construction with a sandwich-type design featuring two outer layers separated by a foam material and interconnected by spacers, which replace honeycomb structures, allowing for localized variation in strength and rigidity, and providing improved attachment points and reduced material usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If honeycomb structures are used in composite floor plates, then weight efficiency is improved, but structural stability deteriorates due to crack growth and damage accumulation
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous adhesive bonding in honeycomb structures is segmented into discrete adhesive points distributed across the floor plate. This segmentation prevents crack propagation along continuous adhesive lines, as cracks must now navigate around individual adhesive points rather than following a continuous path through the adhesive layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive points are strategically positioned and sized to provide localized reinforcement where needed, rather than continuous bonding. This allows for optimized local strength and rigidity while maintaining overall weight efficiency, with adhesive applied only at critical locations rather than across entire honeycomb surfaces.
2Weight of moving object
If resin content is reduced for weight optimization, then weight efficiency is improved, but load-bearing capacity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Resin is concentrated at specific adhesive points rather than distributed continuously throughout the structure. This localized resin placement provides maximum bonding strength at critical attachment locations while minimizing overall resin content and weight, achieving optimal strength-to-weight ratio.
Solution Approach 2:
The resin distribution is segmented into discrete amounts at each adhesive point, replacing the continuous resin layers used in traditional honeycomb bonding. This segmentation reduces total resin requirement while maintaining sufficient load-bearing capacity through strategically positioned bonding zones.
3Strength
If continuous adhesive bonding is used in honeycomb structures, then attachment strength is improved, but crack propagation increases leading to structural loss
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous adhesive bonding is divided into multiple discrete adhesive points. This segmentation interrupts potential crack paths, forcing cracks to stop or redirect at each adhesive point boundary rather than propagating continuously through the entire adhesive layer, thereby significantly improving resistance to crack growth.
Solution Approach 2:
The discrete adhesive points act as intermediaries between the floor grate and cover skin, providing localized bonding while the spaces between them act as crack-arresting barriers. This intermediary approach maintains attachment strength through concentrated bonding while preventing catastrophic crack propagation.
4Strength
If thicker cover skins are used to prevent porosities, then structural integrity is improved, but weight efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of uniformly thickening cover skins across the entire floor plate, the invention provides localized reinforcement through discrete adhesive points with concentrated resin. This achieves necessary structural integrity at bonding locations without increasing the thickness and weight of cover skins in non-critical regions.
Data Source
AI summary
A composite construction, such as, in particular, a composite plate having a sandwich-type construction, has two outer layers which are mutually opposed in parallel and a foam material completely filling the space between the outer layers at least in some regions. The outer layers are interconnected by means of spacers, and the spacers are connected to the outer layers via a cured plastics material.