Development of a Crashworthy Composite Fuselage Concept for a Commuter Aircraft.

摘要

Within the framework of Brite-Euram programme CRASURV 'Commercial Aircraft - Design for Crash Survivability', technology was developed for the design of composite air frames with respect to crashworthiness. The ultimate goal of the project was to develop computer codes for the simulation of the crash behavior of composite fuselage structures. A significant part of the project consisted of the design, fabrication and drop testing of two representative composite fuselage sections, to generate the experimental data needed for the validation of the new code developments. The present paper gives an overview of the development, test and numerical analysis of one of the fuselage sections, a one-bay section representative of a commuter aircraft like the ATR-42/72. The fuselage section consists of the sub-floor structure, which is the major area that will be crushed during a potentially survivable crash. The structure failed in a mode which was not predicted. The deficiencies of the model were repaired and a post-test analysis gave satisfactory results. The project has resulted in improved simulation capabilities. However, it cannot be concluded that the state-of-the-art is such, that the behavior of new composite structures can be predicted accurately in the near future.