Combination comprising an aircraft wing trailing edge section and an adjustment body

Abstract

A combination comprises an aircraft wing trailing edge section and an adjustment body. The adjustment body comprises a tapered cross section in a local chord axis direction of the wing trailing edge section, a lower adjustment body surface connected to a top surface of the aircraft wing trailing edge section and a back-end surface having a height. The adjustment body is positioned such that the back-end surface is flush with the trailing edge of the aircraft wing trailing edge section. Attaching the adjustment body onto a top surface of the wing trailing edge section leads to compensation of an offset rolling moment due to unavoidable structural shape deviations of the aircraft and eliminates additional structural reinforcement requirements on the trailing edge compared to edge wedges mounted on the bottom surface of trailing edges. The trailing edge section may comprise a flap.

Claims

1. An aircraft wing trailing edge comprising at least one flap having a first lateral extension and an adjustment body, the adjustment body comprising: a tapered cross section in a local chord axis direction of the wing trailing edge section with an upper adjustment body surface, a lower adjustment body surface and a back-end surface, wherein the lower adjustment body surface is connected to a top surface of the aircraft wing trailing edge section, and wherein the back-end surface has a height, wherein the adjustment body has a length in a local chord axis direction; wherein the adjustment body is positioned on the wing trailing edge section such that the back-end surface is flush with the wing trailing edge; and wherein the adjustment body has a second lateral extension equal to the first lateral extension of the at least one flap.

2. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the adjustment body has a wedge-shape.

3. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the upper adjustment body surface is planar.

4. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the upper adjustment body surface is concave.

5. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the upper adjustment body surface is convex.

6. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the lower adjustment body surface and the upper adjustment body surface enclose a first angle within the range of about 5 to about 25, wherein said first angle is determined by the ratio of the height of the back-end surface to the length in a local chord axis direction to satisfy the range of said first angle, wherein said length corresponds to about 1-2% of a local chord length of the aircraft wing trailing edge section, and wherein said height of the back-end surface corresponds to about 0.1% to about 0.6% of the local chord length for compensating asymmetric characteristics caused by a sum of structural tolerances of an aircraft.

7. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the lower adjustment body surface and the upper adjustment body surface enclose a first angle at a leading edge of the adjustment body within the range of about 5 to about 25, and wherein a parallel line to the lower adjustment body surface and the upper adjustment body surface enclose a second angle at the back-end surface of the adjustment body, wherein the second angle is higher than the first angle.

8. The edge section of claim 1, wherein the aircraft wing trailing edge section is part of at least one flap.

9. The aircraft wing of claim 1, wherein the wing has a maximum spanwise extension; and wherein the second lateral extension of the adjustment body is equal to the maximum spanwise extension.

10. An aircraft having two wings, each wing including a leading edge, a wing trailing edge, a top wing surface and a bottom wing surface, wherein an adjustment body is connected to the top surface of only one of the two wings, the adjustment body comprising a tapered cross section in a local chord axis direction of the wing trailing edge with an upper adjustment body surface and a lower adjustment body surface, wherein a back-end surface of the adjustment body has a height, and wherein the adjustment body is positioned on the wing such that the back-end surface of the adjustment body is flush with the wing trailing edge.

11. The aircraft of claim 10, wherein the adjustment body has a wedge-shape.

12. The aircraft of claim 10, wherein the lower adjustment body surface and the upper adjustment body surface enclose a first angle within the range of about 5 to about 25, wherein said first angle is determined by the ratio of the height of the back-end surface to the length in a local chord axis direction to satisfy the range of said first angle, wherein said length of said upper adjustment body surface corresponds to about 1-2% of a local chord length of the aircraft wing trailing edge section, and wherein said height of the back-end surface corresponds to about 0.1% to about 0.6% of the local chord length for compensating asymmetric characteristics caused by a sum of structural tolerances of an aircraft.

13. The aircraft of claim 10, wherein the lower adjustment body surface and the upper adjustment body surface enclose a first angle at a leading edge of the adjustment body within the range of about 5 to about 25, and wherein a parallel line to the lower adjustment body surface and the upper adjustment body surface enclose a second angle at the back-end surface of the adjustment body, wherein the second angle is higher than the first angle.

14. The aircraft of claim 10, wherein the aircraft wing comprises at least one flap and wherein the wing trailing edge is comprised of the at least one flap.

15. An aircraft wing trailing edge section comprising a wing trailing edge having a first lateral extension and an adjustment body, the adjustment body comprising: a tapered cross section in a local chord axis direction of the wing trailing edge section with an upper adjustment body surface, a lower adjustment body surface and a back-end surface, wherein the lower adjustment body surface is connected to a top surface of the aircraft wing trailing edge section, and wherein the back-end surface has a height, wherein the adjustment body has a length in a local chord axis direction; wherein the adjustment body is positioned on the wing trailing edge section such that the back-end surface is flush with the wing trailing edge; and wherein the adjustment body has a second lateral extension equal to the first lateral extension of the wing trailing edge.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of an adjustment body on a top surface of a wing.

(2) FIG. 2 shows a further exemplary embodiment of an adjustment body.

(3) FIG. 3 shows a further exemplary embodiment of an adjustment body.

(4) FIG. 4 shows a part of an aircraft with two wings and an adjustment body attached to one of the two wings.

(5) FIG. 5 shows a graph for drag increase depending on choosing an adjustment body.

(6) FIG. 6 shows a graph for lift change depending on the position of adjustment bodies.

(7) FIG. 7 shows a further exemplary embodiment of an adjustment body.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) FIG. 1 shows an aircraft wing trailing edge section 2 with a lower surface 4, a top surface 6 and an example for a local chord axis 1. When referring to the local chord axis 1, not necessarily the exact position of the local chord axis 1 indicated in FIG. 1 is to be used. On the top surface 6 of one of two wings of an aircraft, an adjustment body 8 is attached. A direction of flight is indicated by an arrow x. A leading edge 10 of the adjustment body is directed into the flight direction x (upstream) and a back-end surface 12 is flush with a trailing edge 14 of the trailing edge section 2.

(9) The back-end surface 12 has a height h which is primarily responsible for a de-cambering effect of the aircraft wing in the trailing edge section 2. As the lift coefficient of a wing also depends on the wing camber, it is decreased locally when the adjustment body 8 is present. Due to the local reduction of the lift coefficient on one of two wings, a compensation rolling moment is generated as the other wing has an unchanged lift coefficient. In designing the adjustment body 8 by choosing a height h and an adequate lateral extension along the wingspan in spanwise direction a compensation of an offset rolling moment generated by the sum of structural tolerances of the aircraft is achieved.

(10) The adjustment body 8 may be realized as a wedge-shaped component having a triangular profile with a first angle that is enclosed between a lower adjustment body surface 16 that is designed to be attached to the top surface 6 of the trailing edge section 2 and an upper adjustment body surface 18 of the adjustment body 8. The first angle is determined by the ratio of the height h and a length l of the lower adjustment body surface 16 of the adjustment body 8 in the direction of the local chord axis 1. In order to produce a smooth transition of flow, the first angle should be in the range of about 5 to about 25, preferably less than 17.

(11) In additional embodiments, the adjustment body may comprise a shape with an increasing slope in downstream direction, such that a second angle enclosed between an upper adjustment body surface 22 and a plane parallel to the lower adjustment body surface 16 directly at the intersection with the back end 12 of the adjustment body 8 is higher than the first angle at the leading edge 10 of the adjustment body. FIG. 2 exemplarily shows an adjustment body 8 with a lower adjustment body surface 16 that corresponds to the lower adjustment body surface 16 of the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1. The upper adjustment body surface 22 has an increasing slope in a downstream direction. Thereby a smoother flow transition may be realized and the vorticity of the air flowing off above the back end surface 12 may be decreased. FIG. 7, on the other hand, shows an adjustment body 71 with a convex upper adjustment body surface 72.

(12) FIG. 3 shows an adjustment body 24 with a rather steep first angle between an upper adjustment body surface 26 and a lower adjustment body surface 28 that may be feasible only for aircraft with a cruising speed clearly below a transonic speed as such a steep angle, e.g. 40 or more, may induce vortex generation.

(13) FIG. 4 shows a general arrangement of an adjustment body 34 on one of two wings 32 of an aircraft 30 directly at the trailing edge that is primarily constituted of a plurality of flaps 35. As the adjustment body 34 is used for a compensation of an offset rolling moment due to unavoidable, tolerable structural shape deviations of the aircraft 30, it is attached to only one wing 32 of the aircraft 30, in the shown example the left. In this example the lift coefficient of the left wing 32 is reduced in order to compensate a clockwise offset rolling moment of the aircraft 30.

(14) To improve efficiency and reduce weight, the adjustment body 34 may be interrupted such that gaps are present between adjacent subsections of the adjustment body 34, preferably above flap track fairings 36.

(15) It may be feasible to produce an adjustment body 34 as a self-adhesive strip on a roller, preferably with two or three different height-options that may be rolled off and be cut into individual pieces for arranging it on the respective wing 32. In case the material of the adjustment body 34 does not comprise a sufficient elasticity for being rolled it may be produced as rod-like objects with certain different lengths. Preferably, after production of an aircraft is finished, a test flight should be conducted. During this test flight, the offset rolling moment to be compensated may be determined. This may be accomplished by setting an aileron to a slightly deflected position in which position the offset rolling moment disappears. By knowing the resulting angle of deflection, the rolling moment may be calculated. Knowing the rolling moment, it is easily possible to calculate the necessary lateral extension of the adjustment body to be attached to the wing with a given height. For optimizing the height and the lateral extension of the adjustment body it may be possible to generate a matrix where necessary lateral extensions and different heights of the adjustment body are correlated.

(16) Preferably the adjustment body 8 is arranged in an outermost position on the respective wing in a spanwise direction in order to exploit a largest possible lever-arm responsible for generating a compensation rolling moment. Furthermore, the lateral extension of the adjustment body may be reduced if the lever-arm can be increased and vice-versa.

(17) FIG. 5 shows a graph in which a rolling moment coefficient c.sub.1 (x-axis) and a differential drag value c.sub.D (y-axis) are correlated, wherein c.sub.D represents the drag generated through the adjustment body having a necessary height h. Increasing the height with a constant lateral extension of the adjustment body leads to an increase of c.sub.D. Discrete available heights h.sub.1, h.sub.2 and h.sub.3 may be chosen with increasing necessary rolling moment coefficient c.sub.1, wherein the heights correspond to the height of the back-end surface and wherein the required rolling moment coefficient may be calculated with a known necessary compensation rolling moment by following simplified equation:

(18) $c_l=\frac{L_{\mathrm{comp}}}{q.Math.S.Math.s},$
wherein L.sub.comp is the required compensation rolling moment, q the dynamic pressure, preferably at cruise condition, S the aerodynamical reference surface and s the effective lever-arm. As apparent from this equation, increasing the effective lever-arm also leads to the option to decrease the necessary c.sub.1, thereby reducing the impact on the lift coefficient of the aircraft. This means that the adjustment body shall be arranged at outermost positions on the respective wing, leading to a least necessary lateral extension of the adjustment body and thereby also to a least possible drag.

(19) For example, the different heights h.sub.1, h.sub.2 and h.sub.3 as indicated in the graph may equal 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% etc. of a local chord length. With only a set of a few available heights the lateral extensions of the adjustment bodies with a fixed height each have to be chosen individually. Thereby, the rolling moment coefficient c.sub.1 is adjusted so as to fully compensate the offset rolling moment of the aircraft.

(20) Finally, FIG. 6 demonstrates the change of a local lift coefficient c.sub.L. For the purpose of illustration, the heights for adjustment bodies attached to the top surface of a wing are chosen to have a positive value, as represented by h.sub.1, h.sub.2 and h.sub.3. It is clearly apparent, that the local lift coefficient c.sub.L is decreased. The area 38 enclosed between the height-axis and the c.sub.L-values for positive heights represents the reduction of structural loads of the trailing edge section. As a comparison, negative height values represent wedges attached to the bottom surface of the wing. The area 40 enclosed by the height-axis and the c.sub.L-values for negative heights represent the increase of structural load for the trailing edge. It is clearly apparent that with the same height for adjustment bodies a clearly higher load is acting on the wing trailing edge section. This can be avoided by the combination according to the invention.

(21) Finally, it is to be noted that herein the word comprising does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article a or an does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items re-cited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are re-cited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope.