CN113602503B

CN113602503B - Flute-shaped pipe, aircraft deicing device and aircraft

Info

Publication number: CN113602503B
Application number: CN202111018652.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孔子成; 吴静玮; 胡伟学; 曾飞雄; 白斌
Original assignee: Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd
Current assignee: Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-31
Filing date: 2021-08-31
Publication date: 2022-10-28
Anticipated expiration: 2041-08-31
Also published as: CN113602503A

Abstract

The invention relates to a flute tube for deicing an aircraft, comprising: a flute tube body having a hollow interior cavity, a first end, a second end, and a plurality of holes disposed on a circumferential surface of the flute tube body, wherein the first end is closed and the second end is fluidly connected to a source of hot fluid; a plurality of nozzles, each of the plurality of nozzles respectively attached to the plurality of holes on the flute tube body and in fluid communication with the hollow interior cavity. The heat exchange efficiency of the device can be increased through the flute-shaped pipe. Compared with the traditional flute-shaped pipe, the composite pipe can adopt lower air-entraining temperature under the same anti-icing power requirement, has better thermal protection on slat and leading edge materials, and also provides the possibility of using composite materials with lower heat-resisting temperature.

Description

Flute venturi tube, aircraft defroster and aircraft

Technical Field

The invention relates to an anti-icing/deicing element for heating the leading edge of an aircraft wing by injecting hot gas.

The invention also relates to an aircraft de-icing device and an aircraft comprising such a flute tube.

Background

When an aircraft such as a civil/commercial aircraft is flying in a cloud containing supercooled water droplets, icing may occur on the lifting surfaces such as the windward surfaces of the wings and the tail, and the leading edge of the air inlet duct, posing a serious threat to the safety of the flight, and therefore, it is necessary to take appropriate anti-icing and de-icing measures to prevent ice accumulation that is harmful to the flight. The development of the existing aircraft hot-gas anti-icing technology is very rapid, the civil aircraft mainly adopts hot gas to perform wing anti-icing, and a mature hot-gas anti-icing system also plays a key anti-icing role on various types of aircraft.

In a hot gas anti-icing system, a flute-shaped pipe is widely used as a key part, and the flute-shaped pipe is realized by spraying engine hot bleed air to the inner surface of a protected skin to play a role in heating anti-icing/deicing. The arrangement of the wing leading edge hot gas anti-icing pipeline and the flute-shaped pipe is divided into a parallel connection mode and a series connection mode. Hot bleed air from an engine is distributed into the flute-shaped pipe through a pipeline, and the hot air is sprayed to the inner surface of the skin at the front edge of the wing through small holes in the flute-shaped pipe to heat the upper skin and the lower skin at the front edge of the wing, so that the aim of preventing ice is fulfilled.

In the mode, a flute-shaped pipe with a certain length is needed to spray hot air in the pipe to the inner surface of the skin, and the temperature of the skin is increased through the convection heat exchange between the sprayed hot air and the skin so as to prevent the wing from being frozen. Depending on the water droplet collection characteristics of the wing, different water collection levels may occur at different chord wise locations of the wing, and therefore the flute nozzle is typically directed towards the region of maximum water collection. However, flute tubes on aircraft of various sizes are currently less thermally efficient because they are typically located a distance from the interior surface of the skin and because hot gases from, for example, an aircraft engine, after exiting the nozzles of the flute tubes at high pressure, can quickly spread due to the reduced ambient pressure. At this time, more energy is required to achieve the desired anti-icing/deicing effect.

On the other hand, in a large aircraft project of a certain country model, since the fuselage of the aircraft is largely made of composite materials which can withstand relatively low high temperature values compared to conventional metallic materials, if heated de-icing is carried out using conventional flute tubes, jet heating is generally required at very high bleed air temperatures which may cause damage to, for example, the composite materials making up the aircraft wings or reduce their structural strength/life, thereby impairing flight safety.

There is therefore a great need for a flute tube which enables anti-icing/de-icing operations of the protective skin of an aircraft with a higher heat exchange efficiency, and for a flute tube which enables heating de-icing with a lower bleed air temperature.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a hot air injection device which is arranged in a cavity of a wing slat of an aircraft and can inject hot air to the inner surface of a skin of the wing slat with higher heat exchange efficiency so as to achieve the purposes of heating and deicing.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a flute tube for aircraft de-icing, the flute tube comprising:

a flute tube body having a hollow interior cavity, a first end, a second end, and a plurality of holes disposed on a circumferential surface of the flute tube body, wherein the first end is closed and the second end is fluidly connected to a source of hot fluid;

a plurality of nozzles, each of the plurality of nozzles respectively attached to the plurality of holes on the flute-shaped tube body and in fluid communication with the hollow interior cavity.

By arranging such a structure, for example, in an aircraft slat cavity, hot fluid from a hot air source, for example, an engine, can be distributed through a hollow interior cavity in a flute tube body into a plurality of lances and injected through these lances into the interior of the respective aircraft skin (for example, the slat skin interior surface), thereby ensuring on the one hand as little heat loss as possible of the hot fluid before it reaches the skin to be heated, and thus improving the heat exchange efficiency; on the other hand, the nozzle can be directly aligned with the position of the skin to be heated, so that the hot fluid from the hot fluid source can accurately heat the position to be heated without heating the whole skin, and the temperature/pressure of the required hot air source is correspondingly reduced. In the aircraft with the skin made of the composite material, the skin made of the composite material is further ensured not to be damaged by excessive bleed air or the bleed air property is changed, and the flight safety is ensured.

According to the above aspect of the present invention, in order to further increase the efficiency and accuracy of heating, preferably, the plurality of holes of the flute shaped pipe body may be arranged in a straight line along the length direction of the flute shaped pipe body, and the plurality of nozzles are arranged in a row in a comb-tooth shape on the flute shaped pipe body.

In accordance with the above aspect of the invention, the plurality of nozzles may include a plurality of rows extending parallel to one another from the flute tube body for simultaneously more accurately heating a greater range of skin regions.

According to the above aspect of the invention, the plurality of nozzles may alternatively comprise a plurality of rows extending from the flute tube body at an angle to one another, in order to simultaneously heat a greater extent of the skin region more accurately.

In accordance with the above aspect of the invention, in order to simultaneously more accurately heat the skin region of an aircraft wing leading edge where severe icing is possible without increasing the structural complexity of the flute tube, thereby reducing the cost of later replacement and maintenance, it is preferred that the plurality of nozzles comprise two rows extending from the flute tube body at 30 degrees to one another.

According to the above aspect of the present invention, in order to improve the structural strength of the flute tube and prevent leakage caused by high pressure during use, the plurality of nozzles may be formed integrally with the flute tube body.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an aircraft de-icing apparatus comprising a flute tube as described in the above aspect and a supply line connected upstream of the flute tube, wherein a wing anti-icing valve for regulating the flow of fluid from a fluid source and a pressure sensor are provided in the supply line. The aircraft deicing device can more accurately heat the aircraft wing leading edge which is easy to freeze on the aircraft, improves the anti-icing/deicing efficiency, and reduces the temperature of the fluid of the used hot fluid source.

According to this aspect of the invention, aircraft de-icing apparatus may be provided in the interior space of an aircraft slat cavity with the plurality of nozzles of the flute tube facing the leading edge of the slat cavity, thereby enabling more efficient anti-icing/de-icing operations.

According to this aspect of the invention, preferably, the aircraft de-icing apparatus may further comprise an adjustment device attached to the flute tube, the adjustment device being capable of adjusting the linear movement of the flute tube along the axis of the flute tube body and/or the angular movement about the axis of the flute tube body, in order to adjust the axial position and the circumferential position of the flute tube, if necessary, to perform an anti-icing/de-icing operation on a desired position.

According to another aspect of the invention, an aircraft comprising an aircraft de-icing apparatus as described in the above aspect is also presented.

Compared with the traditional flute-shaped pipe, the novel flute-shaped pipe has the advantage that the extension spray pipe device is additionally arranged, and the heat exchange efficiency of the device can be improved by the design. Compared with the traditional flute-shaped pipe, the flute-shaped pipe has the advantages that the lower bleed air temperature can be adopted under the same anti-icing power requirement, the thermal protection to slat and leading edge materials can be better, and the possibility of using composite materials with lower heat-resisting temperature is provided.

Drawings

To further illustrate the flute tubes for aircraft de-icing according to the present invention, the invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a flute tube for aircraft de-icing according to a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a flute tube for aircraft de-icing according to a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic top view of a flute tube for aircraft de-icing according to a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of a flute tube for aircraft de-icing in accordance with another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of a flute tube for aircraft de-icing in accordance with yet another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of the arrangement of an aircraft de-icing apparatus within a slat cavity according to a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

It is to be understood that the invention may assume various alternative orientations and step sequences, except where expressly specified to the contrary. It is also to be understood that the specific devices illustrated in the attached drawings, and described in the specification, are simply exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed and defined herein. Thus, unless otherwise expressly stated, the specific flow paths, directions or other physical characteristics referred to by the various embodiments disclosed should not be considered as limiting.

The flute tube 100 for aircraft de-icing of the present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In a civil aircraft, a flute-shaped pipe belongs to a core component of a wing anti-icing system, and is also called as an anti-icing pipe for wing anti-icing, the flute-shaped pipe is fixed in a cavity of a slat by a flange device, high-temperature and high-pressure gas from engine bleed air is sprayed to a skin at the front edge of the slat through the flute-shaped pipe to heat the front edge of the slat, and the aim of preventing and removing ice is fulfilled. The upper stream of the flute-shaped pipe is connected with a telescopic pipe and an air supply pipe, and the wing anti-icing valve and the pressure sensor are integrated in the air supply pipe to regulate high-temperature and high-pressure gas from an air source.

Fig. 1-3 are schematic perspective, side and top views, respectively, of a flute tube 100 for aircraft de-icing in accordance with a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the flute tube 100 is a comb flute tube including a flute tube body 10 and a plurality of nozzles 20.

The flute tube body 10 has a hollow interior cavity 11, a first end 12, a second end 13 and a plurality of holes 14 provided on a circumferential surface of the flute tube body 10, wherein the first end 12 is closed and the second end 13 is fluidly connected to a source of hot fluid. It will be appreciated that the flute tube body 10 may be of the same construction as flute tubes used in the prior art and may be secured to aircraft structures such as the slat cavity 200 and connected to upstream telescopic and air supply tubes in a manner known to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, for the sake of brevity, these structures will not be described in detail herein.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the plurality of nozzles 20 of the flute tube 100 are attached to the plurality of holes 14 on the flute tube body 10 and are in fluid communication with the hollow interior cavity 11. The plurality of holes 14 of the flute tube body 10 are arranged in a line along the length direction of the flute tube body 10, and these holes 14 are blocked by the nozzle 20 and are not shown in the drawing. The plurality of spray tubes 20 are straight and arranged in a comb-tooth shape in a linear shape on the flute tube body 10. Although not shown in the drawings, the inner diameter of the hole 14 is greater than and equal to the inner diameter of the nozzle 20 so that the high-pressure bleed air can be smoothly discharged, and it is preferable that each nozzle 20 has the same length and inner diameter so as to be easily manufactured and assembled.

As used herein, the term "fluid communication" means that fluid is able to flow freely from the hollow interior cavity 11 into the plurality of nozzles 20, which fluid may be, for example, high temperature exhaust gas from an engine, or other fluid from other fluid sources onboard an aircraft.

The flute-shaped pipe body 10 and the nozzle 20 may be made of a light high-temperature-resistant titanium alloy so as to reduce the weight as much as possible while ensuring the strength. Preferably, the flute tube body 10 and the nozzle 20 may be separately formed and then joined together, for example, by welding, and in an alternative embodiment, the flute tube body 10 and the nozzle 20 may be integrally formed. The length, size and number of openings and the size of the inner diameter of the flute tube body 10 and nozzle 20 may be determined according to the flow rate required for the anti-icing system design and the fluid temperature and pressure of the hot fluid source, thereby enabling the flute tube 100 to be adapted for accommodation in the space of the slat cavity 200 or nacelle leading edge of different aircraft models.

In addition, although not shown in detail in the drawings, for better injection effect, the open end of the nozzle 20 facing the slat cavity 200 may be flared, or a nozzle with a tapered opening, as required, for more precise injection heating.

It should be understood that although the flute tube 100 embodiment shown in the drawings has a plurality of nozzles 20 arranged in a straight line on the flute tube body 10 along the length of the flute tube body 10 with equal spacing therebetween, the nozzles 20 may alternatively be arranged in other types of patterns, such as staggered spaced shapes, helical shapes, etc., without departing from the scope of the invention, and the spacing therebetween may also be different.

Additionally, although in the preferred embodiment shown in fig. 1-3 the spout 20 is shown extending orthogonally to the longitudinal axis of the flute tube body 10, in alternative embodiments the spout 20 may extend from the flute tube body 10 offset from the longitudinal axis of the flute tube body 10.

Fig. 4 is a schematic side view of a flute tube 100 for aircraft de-icing in accordance with another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the flute tube 100 includes two rows of nozzles 20 extending from the flute tube body 10, and the two rows of nozzles 20 extend from the flute tube body 10 parallel to each other. In alternative embodiments, the flute tube 100 may include more than two rows of nozzles 20. Obviously, at this time, a corresponding number and size of openings are provided on the circumferential surface of the flute tube body 10.

Fig. 5 is a schematic side view of a flute tube 100 for aircraft de-icing in accordance with yet another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the flute tube 100 includes two rows of nozzles 20 extending from the flute tube body 10, and the two rows of nozzles 20 extend from the flute tube body 10 at 30 degrees to each other. In an alternative embodiment, the two rows of nozzles 20 may also be angled at an angle of between 15 and 60 degrees to each other, which angle generally corresponds to a skin region of the aircraft slat cavity 200 where severe icing is possible.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of an aircraft de-icing apparatus 1000 within a slat cavity 200 according to a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the aircraft de-icing apparatus 1000 is disposed in the interior space of an aircraft slat cavity 200, and the plurality of nozzles 20 of the flute tubes 100 face the leading edge of the slat cavity 200. The flute tube 100 may be mounted at a certain angle for different slat designs, and generally may be aligned with the leading edge line of the slat, and the flute tube 100 may be fixed to the rib of the slat by a flange device. Hot fluid from the engine (e.g. engine hot exhaust gas) is distributed via a hollow internal cavity 11 into two rows of nozzles 20 arranged at an angle in the flute tube body 10 and is ejected via nozzles towards the skin interior surface of the slat cavity 200. The injected hot gas is directed over the concave surface of the skin interior surface of the slat cavity 200, flowing upwardly toward the protected area first boundary and downwardly toward the protected area second boundary, respectively, so that the hotter fluid exiting the nozzle 20 first heats the heavily icing skin region (i.e., the most icing skin region), and then the lower temperature fluid sequentially heats the less heavily icing skin region in the direction indicated by the arrows, resulting in a higher anti-icing/de-icing efficiency for the comb flute tube 100.

According to a non-limiting embodiment and as a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the aircraft de-icing apparatus 1000 may further comprise an adjustment device attached to the flute tube 100, the adjustment device being capable of adjusting the linear movement of the flute tube 100 along the axis of the flute tube body 10 and/or the angular movement around the axis of the flute tube body 10.

Compared with the traditional flute-shaped pipe deicing device, the exemplary aircraft deicing device 1000 provided by the invention has the additional extension spray pipe, and the heat exchange performance of a specified area is enhanced by adopting a spray pipe jet flow mode, so that the heat exchange efficiency is higher, the energy can be saved, the air entraining temperature is reduced, and the performance of an anti-icing system is improved. And the flute venturi tube among the prior art, the heat transfer is more extensive, consequently efficiency is lower.

Also, as used herein, the terms "first" or "second", etc. used to denote a sequence are only used to make those skilled in the art better understand the concept of the present invention illustrated in the preferred embodiments, and are not used to limit the present invention. Unless otherwise specified, all sequences, orientations, or orientations are used for the purpose of distinguishing one element/component/structure from another element/component/structure only, and do not imply any particular sequence, order of installation, direction, or orientation, unless otherwise specified. For example, in alternative embodiments, "first end" may be used to represent "second end" and "up flow" may also be used to represent "down flow".

In summary, the flute tube 100 according to embodiments of the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art and achieves the intended inventive objects.

While the flute tubes of the present invention have been described in connection with preferred embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the foregoing examples are illustrative only and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. Therefore, various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention within the spirit and scope of the claims, and these modifications and changes will fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A flute tube (100) for aircraft de-icing, said flute tube comprising:

a flute tube body (10) having a hollow interior cavity (11), a first end (12), a second end (13), and a plurality of holes (14) disposed on a circumferential surface of the flute tube body (10), wherein the first end (12) is closed and the second end (13) is fluidly connected to a source of hot fluid;

a plurality of nozzles (20), each of the plurality of nozzles being attached to the plurality of holes (14) on the flute tube body (10) and in fluid communication with the hollow interior cavity (11),

the flute-shaped pipe (100) can move linearly along the axis of the flute-shaped pipe body (10).

2. The flute tube (100) according to claim 1, wherein the flute tube (100) is angularly movable about an axis of the flute tube body (10).

3. The flute tube (100) according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of holes (14) of said flute tube body (10) are arranged in a straight line along a length direction of said flute tube body (10), and said plurality of nozzles (20) are arranged in a row in a comb-like shape on said flute tube body (10).

4. The flute-shaped tube (100) of claim 3 wherein the plurality of nozzles (20) comprise a plurality of rows extending from the flute-shaped tube body (10) parallel to one another.

5. The flute tube (100) as recited in claim 3, wherein said plurality of spray tubes (20) comprise a plurality of rows extending from said flute tube body (10) at an angle to one another.

6. The flute tube (100) of claim 5 wherein the plurality of nozzles (20) comprises two rows extending from the flute tube body (10) at 30 degrees to each other.

7. The flute tube (100) as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of nozzles (20) are integrally formed with said flute tube body (10).

8. An aircraft de-icing arrangement (1000) comprising a flute tube (100) according to any one of claims 1-7 and a supply line connected upstream of said flute tube (100), wherein an airfoil anti-icing valve for regulating a fluid flow from a fluid source and a pressure sensor are arranged in said supply line.

9. The aircraft deicing device (1000) according to claim 8, wherein the aircraft deicing device is disposed in an interior space of an aircraft slat cavity (200), and the plurality of nozzles (20) of the flute tube (100) face a leading edge of the slat cavity (200).

10. The aircraft de-icing arrangement (1000) of claim 9, further comprising an adjustment device attached to the flute tube (100), said adjustment device being capable of adjusting the linear movement of the flute tube (100) along the axis of the flute tube body (10).

11. Aircraft de-icing arrangement (1000) according to claim 10, characterised in that said adjustment means are able to adjust the angular movement of said flute tube (100) around the axis of said flute tube body (10).

12. An aircraft comprising the aircraft de-icing apparatus (1000) of any one of claims 8-11.