FIELD

[0001] The embodiment disclosed herein relate generally to devices that suppress aerodynamic noise generated by an aircraft’s high lift components, e.g., forward edge slats and/or trailing edge wing flaps.

In especially preferred embodiments, a high lift component of an aircraft wing (e.g., forward edge slats and/or trailing edge wing flaps) are provided with an aerodynamic seal element having an outwardly extended section terminating in a downwardly extended section.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The noise emitted from an aircraft during take-off and landing phases of flight is one of the biggest issues of urban noise pollution in big cities. For this reason, the aerospace community has been committed to reducing such noise levels. In this regard, the maximum noise allowed for an aircraft is regulated during the government type certification process, for example, type certification pursuant to the noise standard rules of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found in 14 CFR Part 36. More recent years have seen this certification

requirement imposing more restrictive noise levels on aircraft.

[0003] The progressive introduction of larger and more energy efficient turbofan engines has significantly reduced noise emanating from aircraft engine operation during landing and take-off phases of flight. However, the non-propulsive part of the airplane structure (airframe) has become a major source of aerodynamic noise, mainly during approach and landing phases of flight. One of the most relevant airframe noise sources for current airframe designs includes the high-lift devices associated with the aircraft wings, specially the flap side edges when the flaps are deployed.

[0004] Various proposals exist in the art for reducing aerodynamic noise associated with a wing’s high lift components as evidenced by US Patent Nos. 6491260, 9132909 and 8657236, the entire content of each such patent being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference. In this regard, US Patent No. 6491260 proposes adding vortex generators to the flap side edge, while US Patent No. 9132909 proposes a porous flap side edge along the entire structure and US Patent No. proposes adding adds a planar perforated seal to the flap side edge, working as an aerodynamic seal when the flap is stowed and working as a noise reduction mechanism when the flap is deployed.

[0005] More recently, US Patent No. 8657236 (the entire content of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference) has proposed providing an aerodynamic seal on at least one high-lift flap of an aircraft, wherein the aerodynamic seal comprises a planar perforated blade seal strip element arranged along and outwardly extending from at least one of the upper and lower profile edges at each of the outboard and inboard ends of the flap and extending a predetermined distance between the leading and tailing edges thereof.

[0006] While the proposals in the prior art may provide the intended goal of reducing aerodynamic noise generated from an aircraft’s high-lift components when deployed, further improvement is desired. It is towards providing such improvements that the embodiments disclosed herein are directed.

SUMMARY

[0007] The embodiments disclosed herein are directed toward aircraft wings and aircraft comprising the same which include at least one high-lift system (e.g., a high-lift flap) and an aerodynamic seal associated operatively with the high-lift system, the aerodynamic seal comprising a a one-piece (unitary) non-planar angulated structure which includes an outwardly extended planar section having a proximal edge joined to the at least one high-lift flap at the outboard and/or inboard ends thereof, and a downwardly extended planar section joined at an angle to a terminal edge of the outwardly extended planar section.

[0008] According to certain embodiments, the outwardly and/or downwardly extended planar sections include perforations. The perforations may be honeycomb-shaped. The perforations if present may define at least about 20% (sometimes between about 30% to about 50%) open area of a total surface area of the outwardly and downwardly extended sections.

[0009] According to some embodiments, the outwardly extended planar portion will have outward dimension D1 , and wherein the downwardly extended planar portion has a downward dimension D3 which is about one-third (1/3) of the dimension D1. The seal element may be positioned near a trailing edge of at least one high-lift flap so as to extend forwardly toward a leading edge of the at least one high-lift flap by a dimension D2 which is between about 0.25 to about 0.75 of a chord line dimension of the at least one high-lift flap between the leading and trailing edges thereof.

[0010] The outwardly and downwardly extended planar sections are angularly joined to one another, for example, so as to form an edge defining a relatively sharp square 90° bend. Alternatively, the outwardly and downwardly extended planar sections may be joined together by an arcuate transition section which may have a radius of curvature R which is between about 0.25 to about 0.75 of an outwardly extended dimension of the outwardly extended planar section. [0011] These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

[0012] The disclosed embodiments of the present invention will be better and more completely understood by referring to the following detailed description of exemplary non-limiting illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the drawings of which:

[0013] FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a starboard side wing of an aircraft provided with high lift devices including a plurality of flaps and slats that may employ the aerodynamic seals as described herein;

[0014] FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a high lift flap associated with the aircraft of FIG. 1 which includes a perforated aerodynamic seal in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

[0015] FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a high lift flap associated with the aircraft of FIG. 1 which includes a perforated aerodynamic seal in accordance with another embodiment of the invention;

[0016] FIG. 3A is an enlarged detailed view of a portion of the aerodynamic seal as shown by the chain line in FIG. 3; and

[0017] FIG. 4 is a graph of results of wind tunnel testing of an aerodynamic seal element according to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 4 versus a control. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] FIG. 1 depicts an aircraft 10 which includes starboard and port wings 12, 14, respectively, extending laterally from an elongate fuselage 16. It will be understood in this regard that the port wing 14 is a mirror image of the starboard wing 12 and thus a description of the latter and its various structural elements is applicable to the former. Thus, the description will hereinafter reference only the starboard wing 12 but is similarly applicable to the port wing 14.

[0019] As shown, the wing 12 includes a high lift system comprised of moveable forward edge adjacent slats 18 and moveable trailing edge adjacent wing flaps 20. The wing 12 may also include other moveable control surfaces, such as an aileron 22 to effect roll control of the fuselage 16 and spoilers 24 to effect airspeed control when deployed.

[0020] The reduction of the aerodynamic generated noise becomes significant during approach and landing phase of the flight of an aircraft. During take-off procedures, the engines are set a fully power and noise generated by the high lift devices is generally masked. Moreover, for the majority of take-off procedures, both slats and flaps are only partially extended and retracted shortly after the aircraft has lifted from the runway in order to improve the lift-over-drag ratio. However, during the landing phase of flight when the aircraft 10 is close to the ground, both the forward edge slats 18 and the trailing edge flaps 20 are typically fully extended while engine power is substantially reduced. As a consequence, noise emanating from the slats 18 and/or flaps 20 becomes more problematic during the landing phase of flight and therefore needs to be controlled.

[0021] Accompanying FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment of a fixed (non-moveable) aerodynamic seal element 30 affixed to one of the wing flaps 20 at an outboard end thereof, it being understood that a similar structural arrangement would be present at an inboard end of the wing flap which is not shown. The wing flap 20 is in and of itself conventional in that it has leading and trailing edges 20L, 20T which define therebetween an upper lift surface defining an upper edge profile 20UE and a lower pressure surface defining a lower edge profile 20LE. The wing flap 20 also includes a chord line CL between the leading and trailing edges 20L, 20T, respectively.

[0022] In the embodiment depicted, the seal element 30 is a one- piece (unitary) non-planar angulated plate structure comprised of an outwardly extended planar section 30a and a downwardly extended planar section 30b having a proximal edge which is integrally joined at an angle to the distal edge of the former. In the embodiment depicted, the outwardly and downwardly extended planar sections 30a, 30b are joined integrally (unitarily) to one another at a relatively sharp edge 30c such that the sections 30a, 30b form a substantially 90° square bend at the edge 30c.

[0023] The outwardly and/or downwardly extended planar sections 30a, 30b, respectively, may be perforated or non-perforated. In the embodiment depicted both the outwardly and downwardly extended planar sections 30a, 30b are perforated. In preferred embodiments, the outwardly and downwardly extended planar sections 30a, 30b are perforated to an extent that at least about 20%, preferably at least about 30% up to and including about 70%, preferably up to and including about 50% of the total surface areas of the planar sections 30a and 30b include perforations or open areas. In an especially preferred embodiment, about 33% (+/- 5%) of the total surface areas of the planar sections 30a and 30b include perforations or open areas.

[0024] In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2, the proximal edge of the outwardly extended planar section 30a is positionally fixed to the wing flap 20 at the lower edge 20LE thereof. The outwardly extended planar section 30a has an outwardly (widthwise) dimension D1 while the downwardly extended planar portion 30b has a downwardly (depthwise) dimension D3 which is preferably one-third (1/3) the dimension of D1 (i.e., D3=1/3*D1 ). It will also be observed in FIG. 2 that the seal element 30 is preferably positioned near the trailing edge 20T of the wing flap 20 so as to extend forwardly along the lower edge 20LE thereof by a (lengthwise) distance of D2. In the embodiment depicted, distance D2 is between about 0.25 to about 0.75 of the length of the chord line CL between the leading and trailing edges 20L, 20T, and more preferably about 0.50 (+/- 0.10) the length of the chord line CL.

[0025] A further embodiment of an aerodynamic seal element 30’ is depicted in FIGS. 3 and 3A. In this regard, the seal element 30’ is dimensionally similar to the seal element 30 described previously with respect to FIG. 2 with one principal exception being that the perforations are an array of honeycomb-shaped apertures, a representative few of which are identified by reference numeral 30d’ in FIG. 3A. The effective diameter of the apertures 30d’ (i.e., as measured between opposed interior walls of the honeycomb structure) is preferably between about 0.2 mm to about 1.0 mm, preferably between about 0.5 mm to about 0.7 mm, and typically about 0.6 mm (+/- 0.05 mm).

[0026] Another principal difference between the seal element 30’ depicted in FIG. 3 and the seal element 30 depicted in FIG. 2 is that the former includes an arcuate transition 30c’ between the outwardly extended planar portion 30a’ and the downwardly extended planar portion 30b’. In some embodiments, such actuate transition 30c’ will have a radius of curvature R of between about 0.25 to about 0.75, preferably about 0.50, of the dimension D1 of the outwardly extended section 30a’.

[0027] Accompanying FIG. 4 shows the wind tunnel testing data of an aerodynamic seal element for a high-lift flap in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 3 showing the noise reduction achieved thereby in comparison to a baseline high-lift flap not including such a seal element. [0028] It will be understood that various modifications within the skill of those in the art may be envisioned. Therefore, while the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope thereof.