Curved Support Structure for Multi-Level Passenger Cabin
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing passenger cabin designs face challenges in maximizing seat capacity while minimizing weight and air resistance, particularly in aircraft with compact fuselage dimensions, where conventional designs struggle to optimize structural space and passenger comfort.
Innovation Solution
A passenger cabin design featuring a holding structure with multiple load introduction points and support structure parts that are curved or bent, allowing for a compact footprint with floor overhangs to create upper and lower decks, enabling flexible furnishing and efficient use of space, including passenger seats and stowage compartments, while maintaining structural stability and accommodating various fuselage diameters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If conventional passenger cabin designs are used, then structural space utilization is limited, but maximizing seat capacity while minimizing fuselage dimensions becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a multi-level passenger cabin configuration where seats are arranged across different vertical levels. The support structure includes curved support parts that connect upper and lower decks, with floor overhangs extending radially inward to create tiered seating arrangements. This vertical dimensionality allows maximizing seat capacity within compact fuselage dimensions by utilizing three-dimensional space rather than conventional single-level horizontal arrangements.
Solution Approach 2:
The holding structure is divided into multiple load introduction points distributed along the fuselage, with individual curved support structure parts connecting these points. Each support part can independently carry furnishing components, allowing modular segmentation of the cabin structure. This enables flexible configuration of seats and stowage compartments while maintaining structural integrity within compact dimensions.
2Quantity of substance
If multi-level passenger cabins are implemented, then seat capacity increases, but structural complexity and assembly difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The curved support structure parts serve multiple functions: they provide structural support between load introduction points, act as mounting surfaces for furnishing components via receiving surfaces, and define the geometric configuration of multi-level decks. This multi-functionality reduces the number of separate structural elements needed, simplifying the overall structure while maintaining multi-level capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The support structure parts are designed with curved geometries that can be manufactured as single-piece formed structures, allowing flexible adaptation to different cabin configurations. The curved shapes enable optimized load distribution while maintaining manufacturing feasibility and assembly simplicity, reducing structural complexity despite the multi-level arrangement.
3Shape
If floor overhangs are extended radially inward, then upper deck delimitation is improved, but available space for passenger access may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The floor overhangs extend radially inward from the holding structure to provide clear delimitation of the upper passenger deck. The curved support structure parts are positioned and shaped to create receiving surfaces that accommodate furnishing components while maintaining adequate clearance for passenger access. This local optimization ensures that floor delimitation is achieved without compromising accessibility in critical areas.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle passenger cabin has a holding structure having multiple load introduction points, a multiplicity of support structure parts to be attached to the load introduction points, a lower base for delimiting a lower passenger deck, and a multiplicity of furnishing components to be fastened to the support structure parts. The holding structure has laterally on both sides one floor overhang as a lower delimitation of an upper passenger deck, extending from a laterally outer region of the holding structure radially inwards and at a distance vertically from the lower base. The structure parts are at least regionally curved or bent and are connected at an upper end and at a lower end to an upper and a lower load introduction points, respectively. The structure parts have a first receiving surface for receiving one of the furnishing components, which first receiving surface adjoins the floor overhang radially on the inside.