Monolithic acoustically-treated composite structures and methods for fabricating the same

• Main Authors: KOWAL, ADAM, WILCOX, DAVID E, HEIN, JEFF M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 19.10.2016
• Subjects: AEROPLANES; AIRCRAFT; ARRANGEMENTS OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSIONTRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TOTRANSPORTATION; COSMONAUTICS; EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLYING SUITS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; HELICOPTERS; PARACHUTES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TRANSPORTING

A monolithic acoustically-treated composite structure, in particular an airflow duct (12) of an APU, comprises an internal frame assembly comprising a unitary composite frame structure (52) and at least one acoustic panel assembly (20). The unitary composite frame structure (52) defines a shape of the monolithic acoustically-treated composite structure to be fabricated. A composite overlay (76) covers the internal frame assembly. The method for fabricating the monolithic acoustically-treated composite structure comprises forming the unitary composite frame structure (52), including the at least one acoustic panel (20) in the unitary composite frame structure (52) in order to build the internal frame assembly, and covering the internal frame assembly with the composite overlay (76).