Tubular members integrated to form a structure
OwnerW. Cullen Chapman, Jr.inventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Integrally stiffened and formed, load carrying structures comprising a plurality of elongated thin-walled tubes placed co-extensively in a complementary side-by-side fashion which together form a hollow structure having a desired external contour. Integral skins forming the external and internal surfaces of the structure cooperatively therewith. The structure can be formed with an underlying internal support member spanning the interior of the load carrying structure, thereby connecting opposite sides of the structure together. Also, each of the tubes are wound with fibers in controlled orientations generally paralleling the direction of the loads applied to the tubes to optimize the strength to weight ratio of the tubes.
Claims45
An elongated load carrying structure of a predetermined curved exterior contour comprising:
- a wall formed by a plurality of elongated co-extensive triangular cross-section filament wound tubes having sharp corners nested complementally together in juxtaposition and arranged to cooperate together in forming at least a portion of a hollow shell defining a body of revolution having said predetermined exterior contour;
- a bond bonding said tubes together;
- and
- an outer skin covering the exterior surface of said shell.
An intermediate apparatus to couple a composite wing structure having a plurality of elongated thin walled filament wound tapered triangular tubes placed co-extensively in a complementary side-by-side fashion to a composite fuselage comprising:
- a predetermined number of plugs having a root end and a tip end, wherein each of the predetermined number of plugs has tapered triangular cross-section adapted to associate with the corresponding tapered triangular tubes;
- each of the predetermined number of plugs having a flange, wherein each of the flanges are coupled to the root end of the plugs to align relative to other flanges when plugs are inserted into the corresponding tapered triangular tubes;
- and
- the aligned flanges adapted to associate with a composite fuselage adapted to receive the aligned flanges.
A load carrying section, comprising:
- a core defined by a plurality of triangular cross-section fiber wound tubes nested complimentarily together in juxtaposition, where at least one corner of each of the plurality of triangular cross-section has angle that is less than 60 degrees, the core having an external surface and an internal surface;
- and
- a fiber wound outer skin over the external surface of the core to define a load carrying section.
A load carrying section according to claima 31, wherein the fiber wound tubes are filament wound tubes.
A load carrying section, comprising:
- a core defined by a plurality of triangular cross-section fiber wound tubes nested complimentarily together in juxtaposition, where matrix material is between triangular cross-section fiber wound tubes to hold the plurality of tubes together, where the ratio between the triangular fiber and matrix is substantially greater than about, 60%, the core having an external surface and an internal surface;
- and
- a fiber wound outer skin over the external surface of the core to define a load carrying section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.