A comparative study of the crashworthiness of civil aircraft with different strut configurations

To meet aviation safety and crashworthiness requirement, the crashworthiness of civil aircraft has been extensively investigated. In our case, we focused on the crashworthiness of a civil aircraft with different strut configurations. The finite element model of civil aircraft with sound simplifications was undertaken to simulate the vertical drop test subject to the velocity of 7 mps. Two angles were defined to represent the configuration of strut, and the variation of the failure behaviour, energy absorption capability, acceleration characteristics and the cubic capacity of cargo holds with the two angles were given. The results showed that there is a contradiction between the acceleration characteristics and the cubic capacity of cargo holds during the structural design, and the four key factors could not arrive at optima under the same strut configuration. They should be balanced to obtain better structure, and the strut with moderate angles for civil aircraft was advisable based on the results of our research.