Influences of geometrical factors on the crashworthiness of open shells

The influences of geometrical factors on the crashworthiness of open shells are investigated, which are extensively used as the struts to support the cabin floor of civil aircraft. The drop test of open shells with different length, thickness, web width and flange width was conducted subject to 7m/s impact velocity. Variation of the initial peak load, specify energy, failure behavior and mean load with the length, thickness, web width and flange width is given. The results indicated that open shell has similar impact characteristics with closed-section symmetrical shells. The initial peak load is a linear increasing function with respect to the area of cross-section. The length and failure mode are the two most important factors influencing the specify energy, and the failure mode would transfer from progressive failure to global buckling as the increasing of the length. The mean load is approximate proportional to the product of the thickness and 0.5 power of the area of cross-section.