THERMAL AND ACOUSTIC INSULATION SYSTEM FOR AN AIRCRAFT

Abstract

A thermal and acoustic insulation system for an aircraft, to be received between an inner surface of an aircraft primary structure, such as an aircraft fuselage structure, and a surface of a panel arrangement delimiting an aircraft cabin, the surface facing away from the aircraft cabin, comprises an insulation package and at least one sensor adapted to measure a level of humidity present in the insulation package. The insulation package comprises a core layer having a thermal and acoustic damping performance, and a packing layer enclosing the core layer. The packing layer is provided with a plurality of normally closed and selectively openable drainage openings which are actuatable to change between their normally closed state and an open state.

Claims

1. A thermal and acoustic insulation system for an aircraft, the system configured to be received between an inner surface of an aircraft primary structure, and a surface of a panel arrangement delimiting an aircraft cabin, the surface facing away from the aircraft cabin, and the system comprising: an insulation package comprising: a core layer having a thermal and acoustic damping performance, and a packing layer enclosing the core layer; and at least one sensor configured to measure a level of humidity present in the insulation package, wherein the packing layer is provided with a plurality of selectively openable drainage openings which are actuatable to change between a normally closed state and an open state to allow for selective dehumidification of the insulation package on demand.

2. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the packing layer is provided with a plurality of functional units, each functional unit comprising at least one of the selectively openable drainage openings.

3. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor is formed integrally with the insulation package.

4. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the selectively openable drainage openings are stable in each of the closed and open states.

5. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the selectively openable drainage openings is configured to be passively actuated.

6. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 5, wherein the at least one passively actuated drainage opening is responsive to a change in an environment surrounding the at least one passively actuated drainage opening.

7. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the selectively openable drainage openings is configured to be actively actuated, and wherein, when applicable, said at least one actively actuated drainage opening differs from said a passively actuated drainage opening.

8. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 7, further comprising: a control unit configured to control a status change of the selectively openable drainage openings.

9. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 8, wherein the control unit is configured to control a status change based on data of the at least one sensor.

10. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 7, further comprising: an actuation mechanism for actuating at least one actively actuatable opening.

11. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 7, wherein at least one selectively openable drainage openings is responsive to application of an electric voltage.

12. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 11, wherein the at least one selectively openable drainage openings is responsive to application of an electric voltage comprises an electro-active polymer opening.

13. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the selectively openable drainage openings are provided only in sections of the insulation package, said sections being sections of the insulation package in a region in which water, water vapor, or both are configured to accumulate within the insulation package.

14. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 13, wherein the at least one sensor is only provide in the sections of the insulation package.

15. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the insulation package is flexible and configured to be shaped to a surface of a structure the system attached thereto.

16. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the packing layer of the insulation package is a flexible foil; wherein at least one the packing layer and a material of the core layer has a coating; or both.

17. The thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein at least one the packing layer and a material of the core layer has a hydrophobic coating.

18. An aircraft comprising: an aircraft primary structure, a panel structure delimiting an aircraft cabin, and the thermal and acoustic insulation system of claim 1, wherein the thermal and acoustic insulation system is received between an inner surface of the aircraft primary structure and a panel structure surface facing away from the aircraft cabin.

19. The aircraft according to claim 18, further comprising: a ventilation device configured to ventilate the insulation package of the thermal and acoustic insulation system when at least two selectively openable drainage openings are in the open state, wherein ventilation air is configured to enter the insulation package through at least one first selectively openable drainage opening and exit the insulation package through at least one second selectively openable drainage opening.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] A detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the claimed thermal and acoustic insulation system provided in an aircraft is given in the following with reference to the figures which show schematically:

[0037] FIG. 1 a general view of an aircraft, in this case a civil transport jet airplane;

[0038] FIG. 2 a section of a cross-section through a fuselage of the aircraft of FIG. 1, illustrating a cross-section through the thermal and acoustic insulation system installed in the aircraft;

[0039] FIG. 3 a detailed cross-sectional side view of an enlarged section of the thermal and acoustic insulation system of FIG. 2;

[0040] FIG. 4 a detailed front view of a packing layer section of the enlarged section of FIG. 3, provided with a drainage opening shown in its closed state; and

[0041] FIG. 5 the detailed front view of the packing layer section of FIG. 4, with the drainage opening shown in its open state.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0042] In FIG. 1, an aircraft 1, especially a civil transport jet airplane, having a fuselage 2 is shown. The aircraft 1 comprises a ventilation device 20 arranged and adapted to ventilate a thermal and acoustic insulation system 3 of the aircraft 1, as shown in FIG. 2.

[0043] As illustrated in FIG. 2 and already mentioned above, said aircraft 1 is provided with a thermal and acoustic insulation system 3. Said thermal and acoustic insulation system 3 is of the kind generally described in the foregoing. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the thermal and acoustic insulation system 3 comprises a core layer 4 of glass wool enclosed by a packing layer 5 which is a multilayer foil. Together, the core layer 4 and packing layer 5 form an insulation package 6. According to FIG. 2, the insulation package 6 is provided with a plurality of drainage openings 7 only in its lower part (with regard to the direction of gravity in the installed position of the insulation package 6). Each drainage opening 7 is part of a separate functional unit 8 integrated between layers 5a, 5b of the multilayer foil. In the installed position of the thermal and acoustic insulation system 3 as shown in FIG. 2, opposite outer surfaces 9, 10 of packing layer 5 face the inner surface 11 of an outer skin 12 of the aircraft fuselage 2 and a cabin side wall 13, especially a surface 14 thereof facing away from an aircraft cabin, respectively.

[0044] FIG. 3 gives a detailed cross-sectional side view of an enlarged partial section of the insulation package 6 of FIG. 2, the partial section enlarged in FIG. 3 is marked by a box in FIG. 2 and the sections of the aircraft fuselage outer skin 12 and the cabin side wall 13 present in the detailed cross-sectional side view of FIG. 2 are omitted. Said enlarged partial section shows two functional units 8 integrated between two layers 5a, 5b of the packing layer 6 in a bottom section and a lower side section thereof.

[0045] FIG. 4 gives a detailed front view of a packing layer section of the enlarged section of FIG. 3, provided with a drainage opening 7 shown in its closed state. The drainage opening 7 is part of a functional unit 8. According to FIG. 4, the functional unit 8 comprises an actively actuatable drainage opening 7 and an actuation mechanism 15 for actuating the drainage opening 7 to transfer from its closed state to its open state. The actuation mechanism 15 is in communication with a control unit 16 of the insulation system 3 which in turn is in communication with a humidity sensor 17 of the insulation package 6. The control unit 16 is adapted to control the actuation mechanism 15 to open the drainage opening 7 in dependence of a data signal of the humidity sensor 17.

[0046] FIG. 5 shows the drainage opening 7 of FIG. 3 in its open position. Thus, FIG. 5 shows the drainage opening 7 in a state in which dehumidification of the insulation package 6 takes place.

[0047] The systems and devices described herein may include a control unit, controller or a computing device comprising a processing and a memory which has stored therein computer-executable instructions for implementing the processes described herein. The processing unit may comprise any suitable devices configured to cause a series of steps to be performed so as to implement the method such that instructions, when executed by the computing device or other programmable apparatus, may cause the functions/acts/steps specified in the methods described herein to be executed. The processing unit may comprise, for example, any type of general-purpose microprocessor or microcontroller, a digital signal processing (DSP) processor, a central processing unit (CPU), an integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a reconfigurable processor, other suitably programmed or programmable logic circuits, or any combination thereof.

[0048] The memory may be any suitable known or other machine-readable storage medium. The memory may comprise non-transitory computer readable storage medium such as, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. The memory may include a suitable combination of any type of computer memory that is located either internally or externally to the device such as, for example, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), compact disc read-only memory (CDROM), electro-optical memory, magneto-optical memory, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), and electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) or the like. The memory may comprise any storage means (e.g., devices) suitable for retrievably storing the computer-executable instructions executable by processing unit.

[0049] The methods and systems described herein may be implemented in a high-level procedural or object-oriented programming or scripting language, or a combination thereof, to communicate with or assist in the operation of the controller or computing device. Alternatively, the methods and systems described herein may be implemented in assembly or machine language. The language may be a compiled or interpreted language. Program code for implementing the methods and systems described herein may be stored on the storage media or the device, for example a ROM, a magnetic disk, an optical disc, a flash drive, or any other suitable storage media or device. The program code may be readable by a general or special-purpose programmable computer for configuring and operating the computer when the storage media or device is read by the computer to perform the procedures described herein.

[0050] Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, including modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

[0051] It will be appreciated that the systems and devices and components thereof may utilize communication through any of various network protocols such as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and the like, and/or through various wireless communication technologies such as GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX, is and the various computing devices described herein may be configured to communicate using any of these network protocols or technologies.

[0052] While at least one exemplary embodiment of the present invention(s) is disclosed herein, it should be understood that modifications, substitutions and alternatives may be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art and can be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This disclosure is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the exemplary embodiment(s). In addition, in this disclosure, the terms comprise or comprising do not exclude other elements or steps, the terms a or one do not exclude a plural number, and the term or means either or both. Furthermore, characteristics or steps which have been described may also be used in combination with other characteristics or steps and in any order unless the disclosure or context suggests otherwise. This disclosure hereby incorporates by reference the complete disclosure of any patent or application from which it claims benefit or priority.