CN107719644B

CN107719644B - Flap retracting device

Info

Publication number: CN107719644B
Application number: CN201710969569.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 潘立军; 吴大卫; 谭兆光; 杨慧; 方阳; 司江涛
Original assignee: Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd; Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd
Current assignee: Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd; Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd
Priority date: 2017-10-18
Filing date: 2017-10-18
Publication date: 2021-09-10
Anticipated expiration: 2037-10-18
Also published as: CN107719644A; WO2019076341A1

Abstract

An aircraft flap retraction device comprising: a pedestal arranged downwind and capable of being fixedly connected to a fixed trailing edge of an aircraft wing; the first rotating shaft is rotatably arranged on the support; a rocker arm, one end of which is fixedly connected to the first rotating shaft; one end of the connecting rod is pivotally connected to the other end of the rocker arm, and the other end of the connecting rod is provided with a spherical hinge; the auxiliary supporting piece is provided with three spherical hinges which are arranged in a triangular shape, and the auxiliary supporting piece is connected to the support through one of the three spherical hinges; wherein the spherical hinge on the connecting rod and the other two of the three spherical hinges on the auxiliary support are each intended to be connected to the underside of the aircraft flap. The aircraft flap retracting device is simple in structure, easy to control, compact in structure and light in weight, and effectively reduces the size of a fairing while ensuring that the mechanism fairing can be arranged along the airflow.

Description

Flap retracting device

Technical Field

The invention relates to a lift system, in particular to a wing flap retracting device of an airplane.

Background

Currently, there are three main types of flap retraction mechanisms that are common: simple hinge mechanism, connecting rod slide rail mechanism and four-bar linkage.

Simple hinge mechanisms are commonly used for single-slit flaps with less fuller motion or double-slit flaps with fixed sub-wings, the flaps rotating about a fixed axis. The mechanism is simple, portable, reliable and easy to control, but has certain limitation. Firstly, the motion track of the flap is a fixed circular arc, so that the takeoff and landing positions are difficult to simultaneously achieve the pneumatic optimization; secondly, the fullerene movements allowed by the fixed hinges are small, while the required fairing is large, with a considerable compromise in aerodynamic performance compared to other devices.

The connecting rod sliding rail mechanism has wide application range and can basically realize any pneumatic design. The flap is connected on the pulley yoke, and when taking off and landing, the pulley yoke is driven by the connecting rod and moves along the slide rail to this lets the flap reach the high lift position of each design. The slide rails can be roughly divided into three types according to different tracks: linear slide rail, circular arc slide rail and hook type slide rail. The arc slide rail and the hook-shaped slide rail simultaneously control the position and the deflection angle of the flap according to the shape of the slide rail; the linear slide rail controls the position of the flap through the slide rail, and the deflection angle of the flap is controlled through the deflection of the driving rod. The connecting rod and slide rail mechanism can enable the flap to reach the optimal design position, but the mechanism has the disadvantages of heavy weight, complex structure and troublesome maintenance.

The four-bar linkage mechanism has higher pneumatic efficiency, but has more complex structure and is troublesome to maintain and repair.

In addition, various mechanisms require complicated mechanism designs to avoid interference when the inner and outer flaps are lowered, at the expense of much pneumatics and weight.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a flap retraction mechanism that is simple in construction and easy to control.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides an aircraft flap retracting device which is simple in structure, easy to control, compact in structure and light in weight, ensures that a mechanism fairing can be arranged along airflow, and effectively reduces the size of the fairing. Specifically, the aircraft flap retraction device comprises:

a strut, arranged downwind and fixedly connectable to a fixed trailing edge of an aircraft wing;

the first rotating shaft is rotatably arranged on the support;

a rocker arm, one end of which is connected to the first rotating shaft;

one end of the connecting rod is pivotally connected to the other end of the rocker arm, and the other end of the connecting rod is provided with a spherical hinge;

the auxiliary support is provided with three spherical hinges which are arranged in a triangular shape, and the auxiliary support is connected to the support through one of the three spherical hinges;

wherein the spherical hinge on the link and the other two of the three spherical hinges on the secondary support are each intended to be connected to the underside of an aircraft flap.

In a preferred embodiment, the first rotating shaft is connected with a gear box and can be driven to rotate by the gear box.

In a preferred embodiment, the gearbox is mounted on the support and is connected to the output shaft of the motor.

In a preferred embodiment, the auxiliary support is a "Y" shaped support, and the three spherical hinges provided on the auxiliary support are arranged at the ends of the three branches of the "Y" shaped support.

In a preferred embodiment, the auxiliary support is a "V" shaped support, and three spherical hinges provided on the auxiliary support are respectively provided at the apex of the bottom of the "V" shaped support and at the ends of the two branches.

In a preferred embodiment, the support is provided with two support plates located on either side of the rocker arm and the link, respectively.

In a preferred embodiment, at least two support blocks spaced apart from each other are provided between the two support plates and fixedly connected to the support plates.

In a preferred embodiment, the first rotating shaft is rotatably mounted to the two support plates.

In a preferred embodiment, the rocker arm and the link are pivotally connected by a second pivot axis parallel to the first pivot axis.

In a preferred embodiment, the auxiliary support is pivotally connected to both of the support plates by a third pivot axis parallel to the first pivot axis, and the third pivot axis is fixedly connected to one of the three spherical hinges on the auxiliary support.

In a preferred embodiment, the support is arranged downstream.

In a preferred embodiment, the aircraft flap retraction mechanism is used to control an outer flap of an aircraft.

In a preferred embodiment, the aircraft flap retraction device is used to control an inner flap of an aircraft.

In a preferred embodiment, the aircraft flap retractor is used for controlling a control surface with a large sweep angle.

An aircraft is provided with the aircraft flap retraction device.

Additional features and advantages of the flap stowing mechanism described herein will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, and in part will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from that description or recognized by practicing the embodiments described herein, including the detailed description which follows, the claims, as well as the appended drawings.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description present various embodiments, and are intended to provide an overview or framework for understanding the nature and character of the claimed subject matter. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the various embodiments and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate various embodiments described herein and together with the description serve to explain the principles and operations of the claimed subject matter.

Drawings

With reference to the above objects, the technical features of the present invention are clearly described in the following claims, and its advantages are apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate by way of example a preferred embodiment of the present invention, without limiting the scope of the inventive concept.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of an aircraft flap retraction device according to the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view of a rocker arm and linkage assembly of the aircraft flap retraction device of FIG. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic perspective view of an auxiliary support of the aircraft flap retraction device of fig. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of an aircraft flap retraction device installation position according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an exploded view of an aircraft flap retractor according to the invention.

List of reference numerals

1 auxiliary support

2 third rotating shaft

3 support

4 connecting rod

5 Rocker arm

6 first rotating shaft

7 supporting block

8 gear box

9 second rotating shaft

13 support plate

One end of 41 connecting rod

The other end of the 42 connecting rod

51 one end of the rocker arm

52 the other end of the rocker arm

111. 411 spherical hinge

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the exemplary embodiments, it will be understood that this description is not intended to limit the invention to those exemplary embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover not only these exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. For convenience in explanation and accurate definition in the appended claims, the terms "upper", "lower", "inner" and "outer" are used to describe features of the exemplary embodiments with reference to the positions of such features as displayed in the figures.

The outer flap of the airplane has an dihedral angle and a sweepback angle, does not have a fixed rotating shaft when moving along with the airflow, and has a composite movement of retreating and rotation and also has a spanwise displacement. Thus, the motion of the outer flap is a spatial six degree of freedom motion. When the mechanism is designed, the complexity of the movement must be fully considered, and reasonable constraint is designed to ensure the normal operation of the flap movement. The motion of the trailing edge flap follows the principle of equal percentage chord length, and because the plane of the wing is approximately trapezoidal, the motion of two actuators on the control surface of the same flap is not synchronous, and careful calculation and motion relation analysis are needed during design. The pneumatic requirement is that the motion of the inner flap and the outer flap is carried out synchronously, however, under the condition that the same torque tube transmits power, the real-time deflection of the inner flap and the outer flap by the same angle cannot be realized theoretically, and the error is only minimal when the inner flap and the outer flap reach the designed position. Therefore, the pneumatic performance needs to be checked after the movement mechanism is installed, and the pneumatic performance error is ensured to be within a reasonable design range. In view of these factors, the aircraft flap retraction device of the present invention has been developed.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

An aircraft flap retraction device 100 according to the present invention is shown in fig. 1. The aircraft flap retraction device 100 comprises: a support 3, a first rotating shaft 6, a rocker arm 5, a connecting rod 4, and an auxiliary support 1. The pedestals 3 are streamwise disposed and can be fixedly attached to the fixed trailing edge of the aircraft wing to support other components of the flap retractor 100. The first rotary shaft 6 is rotatably mounted to the holder 3 so that the first rotary shaft 6 can rotate about its own axis within the holder 3.

Referring also to fig. 2 and 4, the rocker arm 5 is fixedly connected at one end 51 thereof to the first rotation shaft 6 so as to be rotatable with the first rotation shaft 6. The link 4 is pivotably connected at one end 41 thereof to the other end 52 of the rocker arm 5, so that the one end 41 of the link 4 can pivot relative to the other end 52. And the other end 42 of the connecting rod 4 is provided with a spherical hinge 411, and the spherical hinge 411 is used for being connected to the lower side of the aircraft flap, so that when the first rotating shaft 6 is driven to rotate, the rocker arm 5 is driven to rotate, and the connecting rod 4 is driven to apply pushing force or pulling force to the lower side of the flap.

The auxiliary support 1 is provided with three spherical hinges 111 arranged in a triangular manner. One of the three spherical hinges 111 is connected to the support 3, while the other two spherical hinges 111 are each intended to be connected to the underside of the aircraft flap. Due to the arrangement of the auxiliary support 1, when the linkage 4 exerts a thrust on the flap for unfolding, the flap is deflected downwards with a displacement outwards in the spanwise direction by the action of the three ball joints 111. When the device is used for the outer flap, the interference with the inner flap can be effectively avoided, and the gap between the inner flap and the outer flap can be effectively reduced.

In particular, the first shaft 6 is connected to a gearbox 8 and can be driven in a rotary movement by said gearbox 8. Alternatively, the first rotary shaft 6 can also be the output shaft of the gearbox 8. And the gearbox 8 may be mounted on the support 3 or to the fuselage and connected to the output shaft of the motor for rotation by the motor.

The auxiliary support 1 can be configured in different ways, provided that three spherical hinges 111 arranged in a triangular manner can be arranged and that the spherical hinges 111 are connected to the support 3 and the underside of the flap, respectively. In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the auxiliary support 1 is a "Y" shaped support, the three spherical hinges 111 of the auxiliary support 1 being arranged at the ends of the three branches of the "Y" shaped support, respectively. Of course, it is envisaged that the auxiliary support 1 could also be formed as a "V" shaped bracket, the three spherical hinges 111 of the auxiliary support 1 being arranged at the base vertex and at the ends of the two branches, respectively. In this case, in order to facilitate the mounting of two spherical hinges 111 to the underside of the flap, it is preferred that the spherical hinge 111 arranged at the bottom vertex of the "V" shaped bracket is connected to the support 3, while the other two spherical hinges 111 connect the underside of the flap.

Preferably, the support 3 is provided with two bearing plates 13, one on each side of the rocker 5 and the connecting rod 4. At least two support blocks 7 which are spaced apart from each other and are fixedly connected to the support plate are arranged between the two support plates 13 in order to reinforce the carrier 3.

The first shaft 6 is rotatably mounted to two support plates 13.

Preferably, the rocker arm 5 and the connecting rod 4 are pivotally connected by a second axis of rotation 9 parallel to the first axis of rotation 6, so as to vary the speed and direction of rotation transmitted by the drive shaft. It is also preferred that the auxiliary support 1 is pivotally connected to the two support plates 13 by a third rotation shaft 2 parallel to the first rotation shaft 6, and that the third rotation shaft 2 is fixedly connected to one of the three spherical hinges 111 on the auxiliary support.

The aircraft flap retraction device according to the invention is particularly suitable for controlling an outer flap of an aircraft. The device has obvious advantages in controlling the outer flap of the airplane, but can also be used for controlling the inner flap of the airplane and a control surface with a larger sweepback angle. The mounting position of the aircraft flap retraction device 100 on an aircraft flap is shown in fig. 4.

The invention has the main beneficial effects that:

1. due to the arrangement of the four spherical hinges, compared with the traditional simple hinge, the four spherical hinges can enable the outer side flap to have outward displacement along the unfolding direction in the downward deflection process, so that the interference with the inner side flap is effectively avoided, and the gap between the inner side flap and the outer side flap is effectively reduced;

2. due to the arrangement of the auxiliary supporting piece, the three spherical hinges can be effectively borne, so that the structure is compact, and the weight is reduced;

3. due to the arrangement of the support along the airflow, the size of the fairing can be effectively reduced while the fairing can be arranged along the airflow;

4. due to the arrangement of the simple spherical hinge mechanism, the flap retracting device has a simple structure and is easy to control;

5. due to the arrangement of the direction-changing and speed-changing gear boxes, the rotating speed and the direction transmitted by the driving shaft can be effectively changed.

While the foregoing has described the invention in terms of its structure and operation in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that such exemplifications are merely illustrative and not restrictive of the invention. Therefore, modifications and variations of the present invention may be made within the true spirit and scope of the claims, and these modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. An aircraft flap retraction device comprising:

a support (3), said support (3) being arranged downwind and being fixedly connectable to a fixed trailing edge of an aircraft wing;

the first rotating shaft (6), the first rotating shaft (6) is rotatably arranged on the support (3);

a rocker arm (5), one end (51) of the rocker arm (5) being fixedly connected to the first rotation shaft (6);

the connecting rod (4) is I-shaped and provided with a flange strip and a web plate, one end (41) of the connecting rod is pivotally connected to the other end (52) of the rocker arm (5), and the other end (42) of the connecting rod is provided with a spherical hinge (411);

an auxiliary support (1), on which (1) three spherical hinges (111) are arranged in a triangular arrangement, and by means of which (111) the auxiliary support (1) is connected to the support (3);

wherein the spherical hinge (411) on the link and the other two spherical hinges (111) of the three spherical hinges (111) on the auxiliary support are each intended to be connected to the underside of an aircraft flap.

2. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the first rotating shaft (6) is connected with a gear box (8) and can be driven to rotate by the gear box (8).

3. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 2,

the gear box (8) is arranged on the support (3) and is connected with an output shaft of the motor.

4. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the auxiliary support member (1) is a Y-shaped support, and three spherical hinges (111) arranged on the auxiliary support member (1) are arranged at the end parts of three branches of the Y-shaped support.

5. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the auxiliary supporting piece (1) is a V-shaped support, and three spherical hinges (111) arranged on the auxiliary supporting piece (1) are respectively arranged at the bottom vertex of the V-shaped support and the ends of two branches.

6. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the support (3) is provided with two support plates (13) which are respectively positioned at two sides of the rocker arm (5) and the connecting rod (4).

7. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 6,

at least two supporting blocks (7) which are fixedly connected with the supporting plates and are spaced from each other are arranged between the two supporting plates (13).

8. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 6,

the first rotation shaft (6) is rotatably mounted to the two support plates (13).

9. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the rocker arm (5) and the connecting rod (4) are pivotally connected by a second rotating shaft (9) parallel to the first rotating shaft (6).

10. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 6,

the auxiliary support (1) is pivotally connected to the two support plates (13) by a third axis of rotation (2) parallel to the first axis of rotation (6), and the third axis of rotation (2) is fixedly connected to one of three spherical hinges (111) on the auxiliary support.

11. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the support (3) is arranged along the air flow.

12. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1,

the aircraft flap retraction device is used for controlling an outer flap of an aircraft.

13. The aircraft flap retraction device according to claim 1, wherein the aircraft flap retraction device is used to control an inner flap of an aircraft.

14. The aircraft flap retractor of claim 1 wherein the aircraft flap retractor is configured to control a control surface at a relatively high sweep angle.

15. An aircraft, characterized in that the aircraft is equipped with an aircraft flap retractor according to any one of claims 1 to 14.