For commuter aircrafts, as well as for light aircrafts and helicopters, the subfloor represents the structure that has to absorb great part of energy during a crash. Consequently, the subfloor has to be designed so as to limit the deceleration forces by stable crushing and to provide a post-crash structural integrity of the cabin floor. This paper presents a retrofit design of a subfloor structure for commuter aircrafts. The subfloor concept is developed to improve the crash safety and consists in adding to a conventional aluminum structure crushable elements made of foam-blocks. The finite element simulation of a 9 m/s vertical impact onto a rigid surface shows that the acce1erations in correspondence of the seals and the occupants are limited to 22 g, in comparison to the 33 g of the original configuration. So, the maximum acceleration results 33 % lower than the maximum one measured on the conventional subfloor. Also the floor buckling and the seal detachment are significantly reduced.
Development of a crashworthy subfloor concept for a commuter aircraft
Entwicklung eines energieabsorbierenden Unterflurkonzeptes für ein Commuter-Flugzeug
2003
4 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 6 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Retrofit design of a crashworthy subfloor for a commuter aircraft
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2003
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