Estudo do comportamento termomecânico de ferramentais de montagem de estruturas aeronáuticas

Abstract

The present work investigates the thermomechanical behavior of assembly tooling for flight critical components, focusing on control surfaces and the effects of thermal expansion on product tolerances. The analysis carried out is extremely useful for assembly processes located in thermally uncontrolled environments. Temperature measurements were performed on the assembly jigs of control surfaces from two aircraft during two hot days, including ambient and ceiling temperatures in the hangar where these tools were located. Structural models were developed to perform finite element analyses (FEA), revealing significant displacements in the vertical and transverse directions, directly impacting hinge tolerances and causing assembly delays in the absence of corrective shims. To generalize the analysis, a thermal model based on the Lumped Capacitance Method (LCM) was created to estimate surface temperatures from environmental conditions. The model showed an average error below 10%, and the subsequent structural analyses confirmed the displacement results with a low error and differences between the built models around 0.06 mm, validating the methodology for future evaluations in assembly processes.