Method of forming a panel assembly of a ventral fairing of an aircraft
View Patent ↗A panel assembly, in which the liaison between two adjacent panels is sealed by a sealing joint, where the sealing joint comprises a central part, housed in an interstice between the two panels, and an external part, facing the exterior of the panel assembly, and capable of covering at least partially the external face of the two longitudinal edges of the panels surrounding the interstice. Also, a method for mounting a panel assembly, in which two adjacent panels are fixed to one another.
1. A method of forming a panel assembly of a ventral fairing of an aircraft, comprising:
mounting first and second panels on a support structure to form at least a portion of the panel assembly of the ventral fairing the aircraft, with a variable width interstice being provided between adjacent longitudinal edges of the mounted first and second panels, wherein the width of the variable width interstice varies as a maximum and a minimum dimension between the adjacent edges of the first and second panels according to mounting constraints of the first and second panels on the support structure and compression and expansion forces encountered during use of the aircraft; and
sealing adjacent edges of the first and second panels with a sealing joint configured to minimize aerodynamic drag on the aircraft generated by movement of the first and second panels, wherein the sealing joint comprises:
a central part housed in the variable width interstice,
an external part facing an exterior of the panel assembly and configured to cover an external face of the longitudinal edges of the mounted first and second panels, with the external part being provided with an aerodynamic profile to minimize the aerodynamic drag at a location between the first and second panels, and
an internal part facing an interior of the assembly and configured to cover an internal face of the longitudinal edges of the mounted first and second panels.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the central part of the sealing joint has a width larger than the minimum dimension of the variable width of the interstice and smaller than the maximum dimension of the variable width of the interstice.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the central part of the sealing joint has an initial width, and is configured to be compressed during shrinkage of the width of the interstice to its minimum distance.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the central part of the sealing joint is configured to recover from compression to its initial width, in which the initial width is smaller than the width of the interstice at its maximum variable distance.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the internal part of the sealing join has a width greater than that of the external part.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the central part, the external part and the internal part of the sealing joint have different widths.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the longitudinal edges of the first and second panels is fixed to the support structure by a fixing device.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the fixing device is a captive nut.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the support structure is a wale.