On the crashworthiness behaviour of a composite fuselage Sub-floor component

In this work, the crashworthiness of the floor subsection of the cargo area of a civil aircraft is investigated. The structural behaviour under dynamic loading conditions of a structural sub-floor component, made of carbon fibre-reinforced composite material, has been studied in detail from a combined experimental/numerical perspective. Indeed, numerical impact tests characterized by different impact energies have been performed, with advanced numerical tools, finalized to the full understanding of the damage onset and propagation during the impact event. Preliminary numerical quasi-static and dynamic analyses have been carried out on the single sub-components. Then, the impact behaviour of the entire subfloor component has been numerically simulated taking into account the inter-laminar and intra-laminar damages onset and propagation. The comparison between the numerical results and the experimental data from the entire subfloor component has allowed to fully characterize the damage evolution in the investigated component and to provide interesting information finalized to a crashworthy design