Patent Application
20230303240
This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, EP Patent Application No. 22461530.2, filed Mar. 28, 2022 and titled “WHEEL AND BRAKE ASSEMBLY,” which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes.
The present disclosure is concerned with wheel and brake assemblies especially, but not exclusively, for vehicles e.g. aircraft.
Wheel and brake assemblies, e.g. in aircraft, typically comprise a number of relatively rotating parts and parts that come into frictional engagement during braking which results in generation of heat at certain locations within the system. The locations where heat is generated, and to which heat is transferred, will suffer wear and possibly failure due to the heat. This results in certain parts of the assembly needing to be replaced while other parts of the assembly are still in good working condition. The life of the overall assembly, though, is usually dictated by the life of the first parts to fail or to be worn to a predetermined degree, after which the entire assembly usually needs to be replaced.
There is, therefore, a need to enable better heat distribution across the parts of the assembly.
According to this disclosure, there is provided a wheel and brake assembly comprising: a stator; a rotating assembly mounted around and rotatable relative to the stator about an axis A; a torque tube in fixed engagement with the stator; a stack of brake disks mounted about the torque tube, the stack of brake disks comprising alternate rotor disks and stator disks, the stator disks attached to the torque tube and the rotor disks attached to the rotating assembly; a brake actuator configured to, in response to a brake command, apply a pressing force on the stack of brake disks to cause frictional engagement between the rotor disks and the stator disks such that the stator disks limit rotation of the rotor disks and, hence the rotating assembly, relative to the torque tube; wherein the stator disks are attached to the torque tube by means of a plurality of splines around the torque tube and a plurality of recesses in the stator disks in which the splines engage; wherein the rotor disks are attached to the rotating assembly by means of a plurality of torque bars extending radially inwards from the rotor and a plurality of recesses in the rotor disks with which the torque bars engage; and wherein at least one or more of the plurality of torque bars or one or more of the plurality of splines has a cavity formed therein and wherein liquid sodium is provided in the cavity.
The cavity may be provided in one or more of the splines and/or one or more of the torque bars.
The assembly may also have a heat shield between the stator and the rotating assembly and the sodium may be incorporated into the heat shield.
The assembly may be an aircraft wheel and brake assembly where the stator is part of the landing gear and the rotating assembly is the wheel assembly.
Examples of an assembly according to the disclosure will now be described by way of example only with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that variations are possible within the scope of the claims.
A typical wheel and brake assembly will first be described, by way of background, and with reference to
A wheel and brake assembly typical includes a stator, or stationary (non-rotating) part and a rotating assembly, which rotates relative to the stator. In an aircraft wheel and brake assembly, for example, the rotating assembly may include the wheel 10 and the stator may be a fixed axle, such as the landing gear axle. A torque tube 20 is provided in fixed engagement with the stator. The brake assembly comprises a number of brake plates or disks, together forming a heat sink 30, arranged along the axis of the torque tube. The brake disks form a brake stack of alternate rotor disks 40 and stator disks 50. The stator disks are fixed to the torque tube 20 (and, hence, the stator) by means of splines 22 provided on the torque tube that engage in recesses 32 formed around the inner perimeter of the stator disks. The rotor disks engage with torque bars 12 provided around the inner surface of the wheel, where the torque bars 12 work as splines that engage with recesses 34 provided around the outer perimeter of the rotor disks.
To cause braking of the wheel—i.e. to decelerate rotation or stop rotation of the wheel—a brake actuator 60 causes the stack of brake disks to be pressed together in the axial direction. The compression of the disks means that each rotor disk 40 is tightly held between two adjacent stator disks 50 and the frictional force prevents the rotor disks, and hence the wheel 10 to which they are connected via the torque bars 12, from rotating.
Often, wheel and brake assemblies are provided with a heat shield 70 around the interior of the wheel. The main purpose of the heat shield is to offer resistance to radiation and convection heat transfer to the wheel.
Even with the presence of a heat shield, however, there are certain locations within the wheel assembly where a greater amount of heat will be transferred and these can result in hotspots where there is a greater degree of wear and/or risk of damage to the parts. Such hotspots can arise, for example, at or around the locations of spline engagement between the brake disks and the torque bar/drive inserts.
According to the present disclosure, heat distribution within the assembly is improved using metallic sodium provided in cavities formed at pertinent locations within the assembly as will be described further below.
The use of metallic sodium is known in other applications, particularly in the automotive field. For example, metallic sodium is often incorporated into valve parts in car engines. Metallic sodium is highly conductive compared to materials commonly used for valve components, and in its liquid phase, sodium has a thermal conductivity similar to aluminium. Sodium phase-changes to liquid at a temperature of around 212 deg. F. (100 deg C). In one example, a valve interior may be filled up to around 60% of its volume with liquid metallic sodium. The head of the valve will usually be relatively hot creating a high temperature gradient. When the body of the valve contains the sodium, the temperature is equalized across the valve part and heat transfer between the engine parts is increased. The valve is in constant motion and there is, therefore, constant heat exchange between the hot and the cold part of the valve, improving the overall heat distribution along the entire valve part.
In the present disclosure, the properties of metallic sodium are used to advantage in wheel and brake assemblies to improve heat distribution in the assembly. Wheel and brake parts such as the torque tube are often made of materials such as titanium (e.g. Ti 6-4) that have a lower thermal conductivity. The downside of such materials is that they provide relatively poor heat exchange between the assembly parts. The high thermal conductivity of liquid sodium has been found by the inventors to increase heat exchange between parts of the wheel and brake assembly when incorporated into wheel and brake assembly parts that are formed of other, less thermally conductive materials.
In one example, liquid sodium could be incorporated into the spline of the torque tube as shown, for example, in
Generally, the torque tube, being a stationary part, will only experience vibrations, but these will give sufficient torque tube displacements to distribute liquid metallic sodium inside the cavity 300.
In this example, the temperature can be equalized by forming a cavity 300 in the spline 22′ extending along the length of the torque tube 20′. Metallic sodium 400 is provided in the cavity. At temperatures around or above 100 deg. C, the sodium will change to liquid and, as mentioned above, the relatively high thermal conduction properties of the liquid sodium will result in greater heat exchange between the assembly parts and improved heat distribution.
Providing the sodium in the torque tube splines 22′ is just one example of how and where metallic sodium can be advantageously used in a wheel and brake assembly.
Another example is shown in
It is envisaged that only the torque tube splines are modified to include metallic sodium, or only the drive bars, or both. It could also be envisaged that only some of the splines and/or some of the drive bars are modified to incorporate metallic sodium.
In another example, not shown, metallic sodium could be incorporated into the heat shield. Heat shields can take various forms and are provided between the heat sink and the wheel to protect the wheel from radiation and convection heat flow. For example, heat shields are often formed by arcuate panels provided within the wheel. According to the disclosure, metallic sodium could, for example, be incorporated in the heat shield.
By incorporating metallic sodium into parts of the wheel and brake assembly, the temperature of the assembly could be reduced or at least equalized. If the temperature is more equally distributed, there is less stress on the components due to thermal expansion at certain locations.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22461530.2 | Mar 2022 | EP | regional |
