The NASA Emergency Locator Transmitter Survivability and Reliability project was initiated in 2013 to assess the crash performance standards for the next generation of emergency locator transmitter (ELT) systems. Three Cessna 172 aircraft were acquired to perform crash testing at the NASA Langley Research Center Landing and Impact Research Facility. Full-scale crash tests were conducted in the summer of 2015, and each test article was subjected to severe, but survivable, impact conditions including a flare-to-stall during emergency landing and two controlled-flight-into-terrain scenarios. Finite element analyses were performed to numerically simulate the aircraft response to the crash tests. The first test simulated impacting a concrete surface represented analytically by a rigid plane. Tests 2 and 3 simulated impacting a dirt surface represented analytically by an Eulerian grid of brick elements using a Mohr–Coulomb material model. The objective of this paper is to summarize the test and analysis results for the three full-scale crash tests. Simulation models of the airframe that correlate well with the tests are needed for future studies of alternate ELT mounting configurations.
Finite Element Simulation of Three Full-Scale Crash Tests for Cessna 172 Aircraft
2023
12 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Algebra, Analysis, Geometry, & Mathematical Logic , Aeroplane , Aerospace manufacturers , Aircraft components and structure , Controlled flight into terrain , Crash simulation , Crash test , Emergency landing , Emergency locator transmitter , Finite element analysis , Finite element software , General aviation , Nasa langley research center , Newtonian impact theory , Test and analysis correlation