Crashworthiness layout of civil aircraft using waved-plate for energy absorption

Crashworthiness is an important requirement in civil aircraft structural design. In this article, the energy absorption characteristics and impact response characteristics of fuselage structure are studied with waved-plate as energy-absorbing structure. Three waved-plate layouts of subfloor concerning the typical civil aircraft fuselage section are suggested. The vertical impacting on the rigid ground is analyzed with finite element model established. Waved-plate deformations and energy-absorption, fuselage's failure modes and energy-absorption, as well as overload time history at seats in different layouts are compared in detail. Simulation results show that the layout with waved-plate between the bottom frame and skin can effectively improve the structural crashworthiness of civil aircraft. The failure modes of aircraft fuselage can be efficiently controlled, the overload peak of seats is significantly reduced, and the pulse width of maximum overload is shortened.