Crashworthiness Study of a Newly Developed Civil Aircraft Fuselage Section with Auxiliary Fuel Tank Reinforced with Composite Foam

Over the past two decades, aircraft crashworthiness has seen major developments, mainly with modern computing systems and commercial finite element (FE) codes. The structure material have been designed to absorb more kinetic energy ensure enough safety during a controlled crash condition. However, fuselage section an onboard auxiliary fuel tank requires special arrangements, since inclined strut system efficient absorber is difficult install under cabin floor due space occupied by tank. To solve this shortcoming, PVC composite foam along aluminum plate introduced beneath improve metrics of fuselage. Drop tests for both conventional design proposed model are investigated adopting nonlinear explicit dynamics code Ansys Autodyn, impact velocity 9.14 m/s. It was found that absorption original can be improved 3.54% reinforcing plate. Moreover, they contribute 20% total internal dissipation. Numerical outcomes also suggest surface experiences 41% lower maximum stress, in addition mitigation peak acceleration responses at different measured locations from 6% 36%.