TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to aircrafts; and more specifically, to arrangements for coupling a fairing panel to an aircraft engine casing.

BACKGROUND

Generally, a fairing panel refers to a structure that is primarily used to produce a smooth outline and reduce aerodynamic drag. The fairing panel may be employed in various types of vehicles, for example, as an aircraft fairing panel, a motorbike fairing panel, a payload fairing panel and the like. Additionally, the fairing panels may also be used to camouflage and safeguard components of the vehicles. In an example, when the fairing panel is employed in aircrafts, it can be arranged at several places such as engine casings, cockpit, flap-track, tail cones, wing tips, and so forth.

Conventionally, the fairing panels are coupled to the engine casings in aircrafts via attachments. Such attachments enable to provide a flexible connection between the fairing panel and the engine casing, to account for differential thermal displacements experienced between the fairing panel and the engine casing (such as, due to hot air exhausted during operation of engine).

In special cases, the fairing panels may accommodate heavy auxiliary equipment thereon, such as a Turbine Case Cooling Valve (TCCV). It will be appreciated that, due to a heavy weight of the TCCV, the fairing panel is susceptible to vibrations during the operation of the engine. In most cases the vibration is caused by an out of balance condition of the engine which leads to an increase in an amount of vibrations experienced. Such an increase in the amount of vibrations causes a consequent increase in vibrations in the engine casing, that are in turn, transmitted via the attachments to the fairing panel. Such increase in the vibrations may excite mode shapes of the fairing, typically bending modes. These modes also lead to a bending in the attachments. Therefore, the fairing panels undergoing the bending may lead to structural failure of the attachments, consequently, hampering an operation of the aircraft, causing structural damage thereto and so forth. Therefore, such attachments used to couple the fairing panels to the engine casings are inefficient, unreliable and may cause serious damage to the aircraft.

Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned problems associated with the conventional attachments used to couple the fairing panel to the engine casing in the aircraft.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure seeks to provide an arrangement for coupling a fairing panel to an engine casing. The present disclosure seeks to provide a solution to the existing problems associated with failure of attachments used to couple the fairing panel to the engine casing of an aircraft, due to transmission of vibrations and mechanical stress from the engine casing to the fairing panel via the attachments. An aim of the present disclosure is to provide a solution that overcomes at least partially the problems encountered in prior art, and provides an efficient, reliable and a cost-effective arrangement that can be readily employed for coupling the fairing panel and the engine casing.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an arrangement for coupling a fairing panel to an engine casing, the arrangement comprising:a pair of rigid brackets having a specific stiffness, wherein the pair of rigid brackets couple a first side of the fairing panel to a first side of the engine casing; anda pair of flexible brackets comprising a first flexible bracket having a first stiffness and a second flexible bracket having a second stiffness more than the first stiffness, wherein the first stiffness and the second stiffness are less than the specific stiffness of the pair of rigid brackets, and wherein the pair of flexible brackets couple a second side opposite to the first side of the fairing panel to a second side opposite to the first side of the engine casing.

Embodiments of the present disclosure substantially eliminate or at least partially address the aforementioned problems in the prior art, and provides an efficient, reliable and cost-effective arrangement for coupling the fairing panel to the engine casing of an aircraft, such that the arrangement is able to withstand high amount of vibrations and mechanical stress transmitted from the engine casing, during operation of engine of the aircraft.

Additional aspects, advantages, features and objects of the present disclosure would be made apparent from the drawings and the detailed description of the illustrative embodiments construed in conjunction with the appended claims that follow.

It will be appreciated that features of the present disclosure are susceptible to being combined in various combinations without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

