RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN MODELLING AND EXPERIMENTATION FIELDS WITH RESPECT TO CRASHWORTHINESS AND IMPACT ON AEROSPACE STRUCTURES

linear behaviours. Abstract: One of the major goals of the French Aeronautics and Space Research Centre, is to perform targeted Research in the Aeronautics and Space fields, for military and civil use. The Research performed in the « Structural Dynamics under Crash and Impacts » Laboratory of the DMSE/RCS Research Unit of the ONERA Lille Centre, is turned towards this objective, one of its goal being to enable the improvement of aeronautics and space structures against extreme aggressions (crash, impacts, explosions). One of ONERA Research goals is to improve the material characteristics and, for another part, to develop theories and models which will enable to numerically design and optimise aircraft regarding extreme loading conditions. This does not mean that the development and modelling of these materials could be done without considering the structural problem as a whole, meaning: taking the environment into account. For our concern in the presented paper, the mechanical strength characteristics automatically bring us to think about durability, integrity/vulnerability and damage tolerance of structures, directly linked to the problem of materials, structures but also to the nature of the considered threat. The presented paper’