Reinforcing element for a structural profile, structural arrangement, aircraft or spacecraft, and method for producing a structural arrangement

Abstract

A reinforcing element for a structural profile, in particular for a round, oval or elliptical structural tube, includes a composite structure, which has a hollow-cylindrical, helically wound mesh of fiber strands which form an inner shell surface configured to receive the structural profile, wherein the fiber strands are respectively embedded in a matrix material, which has an electroactive polymer which can be stretched along a longitudinal extent of the fiber strands by application of an electrical voltage, such that the composite structure can be expanded by application of the electrical voltage to introduce the structural profile into the composite structure and can be shrunk by switching off the electrical voltage to fix the structural profile on the shell surface in the composite structure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.