Composite Crash Absorber For Aircraft Fuselage
Applications
Author(s)
S. Heimbs, F. Strobl, P. Middendorf & J. M. Guimard
Abstract
A composite crash absorber element for potential use in z-struts of commercial
aircraft fuselage structures was developed, which absorbs energy under crash
loads by cutting the composite strut into stripes and crushing the material under
bending. The design concept of this absorber element is described and the
performance is evaluated experimentally in static, crash and fatigue test series on
component and structural level under normal and oblique impact conditions. The
physics of the energy absorption by high rate material fragmentation and
delamination interactions are explained and numerical modelling methods in
explicit finite element codes for the simulation of the crash absorber are assessed.
Keywords: composite crash absorber, z-strut, aircraft crashworthiness, energy
absorption, crushing, fragmentation, delamination, finite element simulation.
1 Introduction
Modern commercial aircraft are designed for crashworthiness with the fuselage
structure’s crash behaviour typically being evaluated in vertical drop tests, as
illustrated in Fig. 1 [1-3]. In case of metallic materials, the energy is normally
absorbed by plastic deformation, while it is crushing and fracture for composite
structures. Besides the deformation of the primary structure itself, additional
energy absorbers can be incorporated to improve the crash behaviour, which can
be based on different concepts. In the chain of energy absorption, the subfloor
area of the lower fuselage is loaded first. A lot of research was conducted with
respect to composite sine wave beams in the subfloor structure that are crushed
under vertical crash loads [4-9]. Further concepts are based on foam [10] or
honeycomb absorbers [11, 12] in the subfloor structure.
Keywords
composite crash absorber, z-strut, aircraft crashworthiness, energy
absorption, crushing, fragmentation, delamination, finite element simulation
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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