Laminate Shells for Aircraft Interior Partitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aeronautical engineering faces challenges in optimizing the weight of aircraft components while maintaining structural integrity and design flexibility, particularly in room dividers, where existing lightweight construction methods either accumulate unnecessary weight or limit design freedom due to their structural constraints.
Innovation Solution
The use of contour-forming laminate shells with fiber-reinforced materials allows for a lightweight construction that can be specifically reinforced in high-load areas, offering greater design freedom and efficient force transmission through a laminate construction that can be tailored to the desired shape, reducing unnecessary weight accumulation and enhancing structural integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If lightweight construction elements are made from aluminum structure with cladding, then forces can be transmitted to the aircraft support structure, but the weight of the element increases unnecessarily
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying the material thickness and reinforcement in different areas of the lightweight construction element. The laminate construction allows for localized reinforcement in high-load areas while maintaining thinner sections in low-load areas, optimizing the weight-strength ratio. This resolves the contradiction by ensuring sufficient force transmission capability only where needed, rather than uniformly throughout the entire structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials, specifically laminate construction with fiber-reinforced plastics, to achieve both lightweight properties and sufficient strength for force transmission. The composite structure combines materials with different properties to create an element that is both light and structurally adequate, resolving the contradiction between minimizing weight and maintaining force transmission capability.
2Strength
If lightweight construction elements use sandwich construction with honeycomb structure, then the element can withstand loads, but design freedom is limited and unnecessary weight accumulates in non-load-bearing areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates the uniform honeycomb structure in favor of localized reinforcement through laminate construction. This allows the designer to apply material only where structurally necessary, providing both load-bearing capability and design freedom for complex contours. The local quality principle enables differentiation between load-bearing and non-load-bearing areas, avoiding unnecessary weight while maintaining strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the structural parameter from a uniform sandwich construction with fixed honeycomb pattern to a variable laminate construction where material distribution can be continuously adjusted. This parameter change enables adaptation to various design requirements and complex shapes while maintaining load-bearing capability, thus resolving the contradiction between strength and design freedom.
3Strength
If lightweight construction elements use sandwich construction with honeycomb structure, then the element can withstand loads, but unnecessary weight accumulates in areas with little or no load
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by concentrating material in high-load areas and reducing or eliminating material in low-load areas through the laminate construction approach. This replaces the uniform honeycomb structure with a non-uniform material distribution that matches the actual load pattern, thereby maintaining load-bearing capability while significantly reducing unnecessary weight in non-critical areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the honeycomb structure from non-load-bearing areas, retaining it only where structurally necessary. This selective removal of unnecessary structural elements reduces weight while preserving the load-bearing capability in critical areas, resolving the contradiction between strength and weight.
4Stability of the object's composition
If conventional sandwich construction is used, then structural integrity can be maintained, but complex shapes and highly curved contours can only be produced with great effort
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses laminate construction with fiber-reinforced composite materials that can be molded into complex shapes while maintaining structural integrity. The composite nature of the material allows for flexible forming processes that can accommodate highly curved contours and complex geometries, resolving the contradiction between structural integrity and ease of manufacturing complex shapes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the manufacturing approach from rigid sandwich construction to flexible laminate construction, where material properties and layer orientations can be adjusted during the forming process. This parameter change enables the production of complex shapes with high degree of freedom while maintaining the structural integrity required for load-bearing applications.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4~6
AI summary
The lightweight construction element (1) has mounting points (2,3) for fixing the lightweight construction elements in the airplane interior and a holding element (4) for the detachable fastening of a partition. The mounting points and the holding element are connected to each other for the distribution of forces by laminate cups forming the outer contour of the lightweight construction elements.