Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics
Methods and Simulation Codes for Inelastic Analysis, Damage, Failure and Crash
Crash Analysis and Modeling of Commercial Aircraft Composite Fuselage Structures
In the context of the development and assessment of design methodologies for aircraft structures in composite materials, a section of composite fuselage having the standard dimensions of a metal section of Airbus A320 was studied by finite element simulation. The purpose of the simulations was to validate the section dimensioning, notably of the energy absorbers in the bottom, the progressive crumpling of which should dissipate the energy generated in an impact. Analyses have shown up two categories of model parameters that strongly influence the numerical results, notably in terms of failure localization and propagation. The first is relative to numerical aspects (mesh fineness, representation of laminated materials, methodology for modeling assemblies and energy absorption components); and the second category relates to the material aspects (behavior law, modeling of failure and delamination). The simulations are compared with a test conducted at the CEAT on an Airbus demonstrator. One of the main methods of improving the simulations today concerns the modeling of the behavior and ruin of the composite assemblies, a subject the DMSE is working on intensely.
Finite element analysis of the crash behavior of a composite fuselage.
Close-up of the subfloor region – failure of cargo beams.
References
[1] D. Delsart, E. Deletombe, D. Kohlgrueber, A. Jonhson, Improvement of numerical methods for crash analysis in future composite aircraft design , Aerospace Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, April 2000, 189-199.
[2] D. Delsart, D. Joly, M. Mahé, G. Winkelmuller, Evaluation of finite element modelling methodologies for the design of crashworthy composite commercial aircraft fuselage, 24th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS 2004) -Yokohama-Japon (Aug-2004).
