Control system clearances

[Wairau]

Does anybody know of regulatory or guidance info as to what constitutes an "acceptable" clearance between control system members & adjacent items?

All regs say their must be adequate clearances & obviously they must be assesed over full range of ambient conditions.

I suspect that major design organisations have "in house" absolute minimum figuures, can anybody shine any light on these?

Thank you from little New Zealand, "down under".

Graham Murphy

 

[aviat]

I've never seen a number in any regulatory publication but I worked for a transport category aircraft manufacture and they used a clearance of 1/4 inch. I don't know where they got that number from.

 

[bwain]

Adequate means that nothing will jam within the certificated flight envelope. A fixed number cannot be given because it depends on the general and local flexibility of the structure. You will need to show in tests or by deflection analyses that your clearances are adequate.