US 8,800,277 B2Granted

Hydraulic system for aircraft

AssigneeAirbus Operations GmbH

InventorsRoger Morvan, Nicolas Dubois, Cedric Lonjon

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Abstract

A hydraulic system for aircraft wherein at least one circuit includes two hydraulic pumps, at least one of which is driven by an engine that may suffer uncontained failure that can damage hydraulic lines close to the pump, is equipped with pressure sensors for the hydraulic fluid in the lines close to the pump and a sensor for the hydraulic fluid level in a hydraulic tank of the circuit supplied by the pump. A control system for a cut-out valve installed on a suction line wherein the fluid arrives at the pump includes logic that determines the occurrence of an uncontained engine failure requiring the isolation of the pumps from line elements that may have been damaged from measurements of the fluid pressures in the lines, from measurement of the level of fluid in the tank and from information supplied late by a uncontained engine failure detection system to command the closure of the cut-out valve. The disclosed embodiments allow achieving a simplified hydraulic architecture wherein two independent circuits are supplied by two pumps each mounted on propulsion engines.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An aircraft hydraulic system comprising:

two independent hydraulic circuits, with each of said circuits being supplied by at least two pumps respectively, wherein each of said pumps associated with a same one of said circuits is driven by a different propulsion engine, and further wherein one of said two independent hydraulic circuits supplies hydraulic power to a set of consuming units, and the other of said two independent hydraulic circuit supplies hydraulic power to the same set of consuming units;
wherein for each of said independent circuits:
at least one pump, amongst said at least two pumps, is driven by one of the propulsion engines that may suffer an uncontained engine failure, which uncontained engine failure may project debris into a projection area;
connecting lines from the at least one pump to the rest of the at least one hydraulic circuit are installed in part in the projection area, said lines comprising:
at least one low pressure hydraulic fluid suction line in which the hydraulic fluid flows from a hydraulic tank towards the at least one pump, said at least one suction line comprising a cut-out valve which in the open position lets the fluid circulate in said suction line and in the closed position prevents the fluid from circulating in said suction line;
at least one high pressure hydraulic fluid discharge line, referred to as HP discharge line, in which the hydraulic fluid flows from the pump towards the rest of the hydraulic circuit, said at least one HP discharge line comprising a check valve installed to prevent hydraulic fluid from circulating in said HP discharge line towards the pump;
and further wherein the at least one suction line and the at least one HP discharge line each comprise at least one pressure sensor respectively, able to deliver a signal characteristic of a hydraulic fluid pressure value in the line under consideration between the pump and the cut-out valve, respectively between the pump and the check valve, and wherein the hydraulic circuit comprises a control system for the cut-out valve that:
receives from the at least one pressure sensor in each line, suction line and HP discharge line, the distinctive measured pressure signal;
compares each distinctive measured pressure signal to a threshold predefined for each line;
issues a close cut-out valve command signal to close the cut-out valve when at least one of the distinctive measured pressure signals is below the threshold to which it has been compared.

7 more elements

An aircraft hydraulic system comprising at least one hydraulic circuit supplied by at least two pumps respectively, wherein:

at least one pump amongst said at least two pumps is driven by an engine that may suffer an uncontained engine failure, which uncontained engine failure may project debris into a projection area;
connecting lines from the at least one pump to the rest of the at least one hydraulic circuit area installed in part in the projection area, said lines comprising:
at least one low pressure hydraulic fluid suction line in which the hydraulic fluid flows from a hydraulic tank towards the at least one pump, said at least one suction line comprising a cut-out valve which in the open position lets the fluid circulate in said suction line and in the closed position prevents the fluid from circulating in said suction line;
at least one high pressure hydraulic fluid discharge line, referred to as HP discharge line, in which the hydraulic fluid flows from the pump towards the rest of the hydraulic circuit, said at least one HP discharge line comprising a check valve installed to prevent hydraulic fluid from circulating in said HP discharge line towards the pump;
wherein the at least one suction line and the at least one HP discharge line each comprise at least one pressure sensor respectively, able to deliver a signal characteristic of a hydraulic fluid pressure value in the line under consideration between the pump and the cut-out valve, respectively between the pump and the check valve, and wherein the hydraulic circuit comprises a control system for the cut-out valve that:
receives from the at least one pressure sensor in each line, suction line and HP discharge line, the distinctive measured pressure signal;
compares each distinctive measured pressure signal to a threshold predefined for each line;
issues a close cut-out valve command signal to close the cut-out valve when at least one of the distinctive measured pressure signals is below the threshold to which it has been compared;
and
wherein the cut-out valve control system inhibits the cut-out valve close command when the pressure as measured on the suction line is below the predefined threshold for said suction line if a signal distinctive of a hydraulic fluid level in the tank does not indicate that said fluid level in the tank is below a predefined minimum level, referred to as tank low level.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.