FE-Analyses of Water Impact Tests on Helicopter Structures

Abstract

The paper describes two different water impact simulations performed on helicopter structures and their correlation with measured data. In a first part a detailed FE-analysis of the crash test of a full scale WG30 helicopter will be presented. This simulation of the helicopter that represents a typical aluminium subfloor design shows the potential of numerical methods to investigate the global and local behaviour of helicopter structures in case of water impact. In a second part of the paper a new design idea to avoid skin breakage in a generic sub-floor structure of a composite helicopter is presented. The results of pre-test simulations have been used to modify the design prior to the manufacturing of two test articles. Finally, the results of the simulations are compared to the destructions observed in a first water impact test.