Assembly Variation Analysis of Aircraft Panels under Part-to-part Locating Scheme

Abstract

A typical aircraft panel is the assembly consisting of a multitude of thin and lightweight compliant parts. In panel assembly process, part-to-part locating scheme has been widely adopted in order to reduce fixtures. By this locating scheme, a part is located onto the pre-fixed part/subassembly by determinant assembly (DA) holes, and temporary fasteners (e.g., spring pin) are used for joining these DA hole-hole pairs. The temporary fasteners can fasten DA hole-hole pairs in the axial and radial directions of DA holes. The fastening in the radial directions is realized by the expansion of temporary fasteners. Although the usage of temporary fasteners helps reduce the positional differences between hole-hole pairs, their clamping forces thereby may lead to elastic deformation of compliant parts/subassemblies. Limited research has been conducted on such elastic deformation produced by temporary fastener and its influence on assembly dimensional quality. This paper proposes a novel rigid-compliant variation analysis method for aircraft panel assembly, incorporating the deformation in part-to-part locating process. Based on the kinematic theory and linear elasticity deformation assumption, the variation propagation through the locating process, as well as the entire assembly process of an aircraft panel, is formulated. Then, the statistical variation analysis is performed with Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. Finally, the proposed method is validated by a case study. The result shows the deformation in the part-to-part locating process significantly impacts the assembly variations, and our method can provide a more accurate and reliable prediction.

Study of critical deviation transfer for assembly of complex structural parts of aircraft

“…lindkvist [5] comprehensively analyzed the deviation of riveting and rebound deformation process of aircraft structure, and constructed a finite element deviation contact analysis model to further improve the efficiency of the analysis of the deviation of flexible aircraft parts assembly. liu [6] comprehensively analyzed the deviation transfer in the assembly stage by introducing Lin [7] used traditional flexible assembly deviation analysis methods such as influence coefficient method and line contact method to build an assembly deviation transfer model based on sub-structure finite element analysis.…”

Design of a Fast Temporary Fastener with the Labor-Saving and Reversible Ability

“…To improve the efficiency of pre-joining process, Zhou Shuyang et al [12] improved the simulated annealing algorithm, applied it to the layout of pre-joining holes, and saved a lot of work time. Liu Xia et al [13] studied the influence of clamping force of fasteners on the deformation of aircraft panel assembly, established deformation analysis method of aircraft panel based on the positioning process of parts, and proposed a more accurate and reliable prediction of part deformation. The above literatures have studied the aspects of pre-joining deformation and efficiency.…”

Assembly variation analysis of the aircraft panel in multi-stage assembly process with N-2-1 locating scheme

“…Liu et al. 37 proposed a rigid-compliant variation analysis method for aircraft panel assembly, the deformation in part-to-part locating process was considered, the variation propagation through the locating and the entire assembly process of the panel was formulated with the kinematic theory and linear elasticity deformation assumption.…”