Development of a crashworthy composite fuselage structure for a commuter aircraft

Abstract

Within the framework of Brite-Euram programme CRASURV "Commercial Aircraft -Design for Crash Survivability", technology is being developed for the design of composite air frames with respect to crashworthiness. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop computer codes for the simulation of the crash behaviour of composite fuselage structures. A significant part of the project consists 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.