Aircraft Wire Harness Transition Assembly for Tail Cone Clearance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft thermocouples are subjected to severe environmental conditions and must be robustly designed to operate reliably while providing accurate temperature measurements without failure affecting other thermocouples, and they need to be mounted around the gas turbine tail cone or pipe without interference.
Innovation Solution
A wire harness with a transition assembly featuring a slotted flange and junction design that allows for secure coupling to a mounting plate, enabling the high and low temperature sections to be installed without interference with engine components, using cutouts and abutment regions for clearance and enhanced contact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the wire harness is installed in the aircraft compartment, then the temperature measurements can be obtained, but the installation space is limited and components may interfere with each other
Solution Approach 1:
The wire harness is divided into a high temperature section and a low temperature section, separated by a transition assembly. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for its specific thermal environment and facilitates easier installation by allowing the sections to be routed independently through the aircraft compartment.
Solution Approach 2:
The transition assembly acts as an intermediary component between the high temperature and low temperature sections. It provides a mounting interface on the plate and allows the wire harness to transition between thermal zones while maintaining secure installation and avoiding interference with other engine components.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the junction flange width is increased for better stability, then the mounting stability is improved, but the clearance with engine components is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The junction flange employs asymmetric geometry with a reduced width portion created by inwardly extending cutouts. This asymmetric design provides sufficient stability for mounting while creating necessary clearance with engine components by reducing the flange width in specific directions where interference would occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The flange has different width characteristics in different regions - a full width portion for stability and a reduced width portion with cutouts for clearance. This local variation in geometric properties allows the single component to satisfy both mounting stability requirements and clearance requirements simultaneously.
3Ease of operation
If the wire harness sections are separated by a transition assembly, then the high and low temperature sections can be independently installed, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The transition assembly merges multiple functions into a single component: it serves as a mounting interface on the plate, provides separation between high and low temperature sections, and facilitates navigation around engine components. This consolidation reduces overall system complexity despite the separation of wire harness sections.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a transition assembly for a wire harness configured to be coupled to a plate in an aircraft. The transition assembly includes a slotted flange configured to abut a first side of the plate, a junction having a flange configured to abut a second side of the plate, the flange including inwardly extending cutouts on opposite sides thereof forming a reduced width portion of the flange, and a nut configured to couple to the junction.