Reliability Study On Coupling Clumps In Piping System Of The Aircraft

Piping system is an important component on the aircraft for fluid transportation. Reliability requirement for piping system design increases as performance of modern aircrafts improves gradually. As essential part of connecting of the system pipelines, coupling clumps are primarily used for the connecting and fastening of pipelines in fuel system, environmental control system and other systems. Operating performance and life cycle of certain systems on the aircraft will be greatly affected in case clumps encounter fatigue damage or even fracture, what’s worse, the flight safety will not be guaranteed, the consequences are unimaginable. Therefore, study on reliability of piping system clumps can increase reliability of related systems effectively, which has important theoretical significance and in the meantime it also has tremendous engineering application value.This paper starts with solving practical problems. Typical coupling clumps failure of fuel system is selected as an example, failure conclusion is offered through analysis. By studying on actual operating environment and finite element calculation, a concept of optimization design of clump structure based on daily usage performance improvement of clumps is offered. F easibility assessments of the concept is also conducted. Iteration of m anufacturing process of clumps is performed on the basis of engineering manufacturing experience, and clump products are trial-produced according to the concept. In order to improve the usage performance of clump products, thorough test and analysis has been conducted on improved trial products in accordance to product test specification, therefore, a conclusion that the improved product can meet the design requirement is reached, and structural reliability of the product can be guaranteed in the future usage.