Aircraft ditching loads simulation tool

The present work presents a novel methodology developed for calculating the steady loads acting on aircraft structures in the event of ditching in water. It represents the preliminary result of Stirling Dynamics as part of a NATEP research project. The overall objective of the project is to expand the capabilities of the Stirling Dynamics proprietary software SD-GLOAD (originally designed for ground and crash loads dynamic simulations) to aircraft ditching simulations. The methodology presented in this paper employs a Doublet Lattice Method (DLM) to calculate the steady pressure distribution acting on the submerged parts of the ditching aircraft. The proposed methodology is validated against a higher-fidelity CFD multi-phase model for a selected test-case and several ditching condition