Aircraft Engine Pylon Mounting Structure for Drag Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft gas turbine engines face challenges in reducing aerodynamic drag, which affects fuel consumption and range, due to the limitations of existing supporting structures that cannot efficiently accommodate accessory components and allow for thermal expansion without increasing drag.
Innovation Solution
A supporting structure arrangement with a rigid connecting device that allows for static determinacy in all six degrees of freedom, enabling a smaller casing diameter and reduced cross-sectional area, while accommodating accessory components in unused space and allowing for thermal expansion through bearings with degrees of freedom.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If accessory components are relocated from the nacelle to the engine pylon, then the nacelle cross-sectional area is reduced, but the engine pylon becomes more complex and space for additional components is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting structure is divided into modular components: a main supporting structure element and separate bearing assemblies. Each bearing can be independently positioned and configured, allowing flexible arrangement of accessory components in the unused spaces between them. This segmentation enables multiple accessory components to be distributed throughout the pylon structure without creating a monolithic complex assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes the vertical dimension along the engine axis by positioning bearings at different heights and the connecting device at a distance from the bearing. This creates three-dimensional unused spaces within the pylon structure that can accommodate accessory components, effectively using vertical space rather than only horizontal space to reduce nacelle cross-section.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the engine is mounted in a statically determinate manner with degrees of freedom for thermal expansion, then the structure can accommodate thermal effects, but the mounting becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides the necessary degree of freedom for thermal expansion accommodation, supports the engine weight, and enables precise positioning of the connecting device. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components for each function, thereby simplifying the overall mounting structure while maintaining adaptability to thermal effects.
Solution Approach 2:
The connecting device acts as an intermediary element that rigidly connects the support to the supporting structural element at a distance from the bearing. This intermediary connection allows the bearing to handle thermal expansion movements while the connecting device maintains structural rigidity for accessory component mounting, separating the functions of flexibility and rigidity into different elements.
3Volume of moving object
If a rigid connecting device is used to connect the support to the engine, then the installation space is reduced, but the structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The connecting device is extracted and positioned at a distance from the bearing, creating a separate functional zone. This extraction allows the main body of the engine to have reduced installation space requirements while the connecting device occupies a separate spatial region, effectively minimizing the overall space envelope without adding proportional complexity to the main engine assembly.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This arrangement significantly reduces aerodynamic drag, increases aircraft range, and decreases fuel consumption while ensuring secure fastening and stability, with the potential for reduced weight and improved safety by avoiding critical vibration modes.
Implementation Method 1
allow for forces acting during the operation of the aircraft engine and for the effects of material expansion due to changes in temperature
Data Source
AI summary
A supporting structure arrangement for fastening an aircraft gas turbine engine to an aircraft, including: a supporting structural element of the aircraft engine and a supporting structure with at least one support and at least one bearing, by means of which the support can be connected or is connected to the aircraft, wherein the support can be connected or is connected rigidly to the supporting structural element of the aircraft engine by means of a connecting device.