Analysis of Crashworthiness Characteristics of a Regional Aircraft Fuselage using an Explicit Finite Element Method

The impact energy absorbing is a very important characteristic of an aircraft to enhance the survivability of occupants when an aircraft is under the survivable accident such as an emergency landing condition. The impact energy is generally transmitted into the occupant and absorbed through a landing gear, a subfloor (lower structure of fuselage), and a seat. The characteristic of crash energy absorbing of a subfloor depends on the type of an aircraft, a shape of structure, and an applied material. Therefore, the study of crashworthiness characteristics of a subfloor structure is very important work to improve the safety of an aircraft. In this study, a finite element model of a narrow body fuselage section for the 80~90 seats regional aircraft was developed and crash simulation was executed using an explicit finite element analysis. Through survey of the impact energy distribution of each structural part of a fuselage and floor-level acceleration response, th