Results for “crash testing” — Page 7

NASA NTRS2008

Multi-terrain Vertical Drop Tests of a Composite Fuselage Section

A 5-ft-diameter composite fuselage section was retrofitted with four identical blocks of deployable honeycomb energy absorber and crash tested on two different surfaces: soft soil, and water. The drop tests were conducted at the 70-ft. drop tower at the Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) Facility of NASA Langley. Water drop tests were performed into a 15-ft-diameter pool of water that was approximately 42-in. deep. For the soft soil impact, a 15-ft-square container filled with fine-sifted, unpacked sand was located beneath the drop tower. All drop tests were vertical with a nominally flat attitude with respect to the impact surface. The measured impact velocities were 37.4, and 24.7-fps for soft soil and water, respectively. A fuselage section without energy absorbers was also drop tested onto water to provide a datum for comparison with the test, which included energy absorbers. In order to facilitate this type of comparison and to ensure fuselage survivability for the no-energy-absorber case, the velocity of the water impact tests was restricted to 25-fps nominal. While all tests described in this paper were limited to vertical impact velocities, the implications and design challenges of utilizing external energy absorbers during combined forward and vertical impact velocities are discussed. The design, testing and selection of a honeycomb cover, which was required in soft surface and water impacts to transmit the load into the honeycomb cell walls, is also presented.

Sotirios, Kellas↗

NASA NTRS2008

Multi-Terrain Vertical Drop Tests of a Composite Fuselage Section

A 5-ft-diameter composite fuselage section was retrofitted with four identical blocks of deployable honeycomb energy absorber and crash tested on two different surfaces: soft soil, and water. The drop tests were conducted at the 70-ft. drop tower at the Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) Facility of NASA Langley. Water drop tests were performed into a 15-ft-diameter pool of water that was approximately 42-in. deep. For the soft soil impact, a 15-ft-square container filled with fine-sifted, unpacked sand was located beneath the drop tower. All drop tests were vertical with a nominally flat attitude with respect to the impact surface. The measured impact velocities were 37.4, and 24.7-fps for soft soil and water, respectively. A fuselage section without energy absorbers was also drop tested onto water to provide a datum for comparison with the test, which included energy absorbers. In order to facilitate this type of comparison and to ensure fuselage survivability for the no-energy-absorber case, the velocity of the water impact tests was restricted to 25-fps nominal. While all tests described in this paper were limited to vertical impact velocities, the implications and design challenges of utilizing external energy absorbers during combined forward and vertical impact velocities are discussed. The design, testing and selection of a honeycomb cover, which was required in soft surface and water impacts to transmit the load into the honeycomb cell walls, is also presented.

Kellas, Sotiris↗

NASA NTRS1974

Light aircraft crash safety program

NASA is embarked upon research and development tasks aimed at providing the general aviation industry with a reliable crashworthy airframe design technology. The goals of the NASA program are: reliable analytical techniques for predicting the nonlinear behavior of structures; significant design improvements of airframes; and simulated full-scale crash test data. The analytical tools will include both simplified procedures for estimating energy absorption characteristics and more complex computer programs for analysis of general airframe structures under crash loading conditions. The analytical techniques being developed both in-house and under contract are described, and a comparison of some analytical predictions with experimental results is shown.

Thomson, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Calibration and Validation of a Finite ELement Model of THor-K Anthropomorphic Test Device for Aerospace Safety Applications

The THOR anthropomorphic test device (ATD) has been developed and continuously improved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to provide automotive manufacturers an advanced tool that can be used to assess the injury risk of vehicle occupants in crash tests. Recently, a series of modifications were completed to improve the biofidelity of THOR ATD [1]. The updated THOR Modification Kit (THOR-K) ATD was employed at Wright-Patterson Air Base in 22 impact tests in three configurations: vertical, lateral, and spinal [2]. Although a computational finite element (FE) model of the THOR had been previously developed [3], updates to the model were needed to incorporate the recent changes in the modification kit. The main goal of this study was to develop and validate a FE model of the THOR-K ATD. The CAD drawings of the THOR-K ATD were reviewed and FE models were developed for the updated parts. For example, the head-skin geometry was found to change significantly, so its model was re-meshed (Fig. 1a). A protocol was developed to calibrate each component identified as key to the kinematic and kinetic response of the THOR-K head/neck ATD FE model (Fig. 1b). The available ATD tests were divided in two groups: a) calibration tests where the unknown material parameters of deformable parts (e.g., head skin, pelvis foam) were optimized to match the data and b) validation tests where the model response was only compared with test data by calculating their score using CORrelation and Analysis (CORA) rating system. Finally, the whole ATD model was validated under horizontal-, vertical-, and lateral-loading conditions against data recorded in the Wright Patterson tests [2]. Overall, the final THOR-K ATD model developed in this study is shown to respond similarly to the ATD in all validation tests. This good performance indicates that the optimization performed during calibration by using the CORA score as objective function is not test specific. Therefore confidence is provided in the ATD model for uses in predicting response in test conditions not performed in this study such those observed in the spacecraft landing. Comparison studies with ATD and human models may also be performed to contribute to future changes in THOR ATD design in an effort to improve its biofidelity, which has been traditionally based on post-mortem human subject testing and designer experience.

Putnam, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Composite impact dynamics research at NASA LaRC: A review

The Landing and Impact Dynamics Branch of NASA Langley Research Center has been involved in impact dynamics research since the early 1970's. For the first ten years, the emphasis of the research was on metal aircraft structures in both the General Aviation Crash Dynamics Program and the Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) Program, a transport aircraft program culminating in the controlled crash test of a Boeing 720 aircraft in 1984. Subsequent to the transport work, the emphasis has been on composite structures with efforts directed at understanding the behavior, responses, failure mechanisms, and general loads associated with the composite material systems under crash type loadings. Considerable work has been conducted to address the energy absorption characteristics and it indicates that composites can absorb as much if not considerably more energy than comparable aluminum structures. However, due to their brittle nature, attention must be given to proper geometry and designs to take advantage of the good energy absorbing properties while providing desired structural integrity. Achieving the desired new designs often requires an understanding of how more conventional designs behave under crash type loadings. The purpose is to present a review of the composite impact dynamics research being conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. Examples are presented of experimental and analytical data to illustrate the activities in the four program elements of the composite research.

Carden, Huey D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Energy-absorbing-beam design for composite aircraft subfloors

Data have been presented from the design support testing of composite energy absorbing (EA) aircraft subfloor structures. The focus of the current study is the design and testing of subfloor structural concepts that would limit the loads transmitted to occupants to less than 20 g at crush speeds of approximately 30 fps. The EA composite subfloor is being designed to replace an existing noncrashworthy metallic subfloor in a composite aircraft prior to a full-scale crash test. A sandwich spar construction of a sine wave beam was chosen for evaluation and was found to have excellent energy absorbing characteristics. The design objective of obtaining sustained crushing loads of the spar between 200-300 lbf/inch were achieved for potentially limiting occupants loads to around 20 g's. Stroke efficiency of up to 79 percent of the initial spar height under desired sustained crushing loads was obtained which is far greater than the level provided by metal structure. Additionally, a substantial residual spar stiffness was retained after impact, and the flange integrity, which is critical for seat retention, was maintained after crushing of the spars.

Carden, Huey D.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Overview of the NASA Subsonic Rotary Wing Aeronautics Research Program in Rotorcraft Crashworthiness

This paper provides an overview of rotorcraft crashworthiness research being conducted at NASA Langley Research Center under sponsorship of the Subsonic Rotary Wing (SRW) Aeronautics Program. The research is focused in two areas: development of an externally deployable energy attenuating concept and improved prediction of rotorcraft crashworthiness. The deployable energy absorber (DEA) is a composite honeycomb structure, with a unique flexible hinge design that allows the honeycomb to be packaged and remain flat until needed for deployment. The capabilities of the DEA have been demonstrated through component crush tests and vertical drop tests of a retrofitted fuselage section onto different surfaces or terrain. The research on improved prediction of rotorcraft crashworthiness is focused in several areas including simulating occupant responses and injury risk assessment, predicting multi-terrain impact, and utilizing probabilistic analysis methods. A final task is to perform a system-integrated simulation of a full-scale helicopter crash test onto a rigid surface. A brief description of each research task is provided along with a summary of recent accomplishments.

Jackson, Karen E.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Overview of the NASA Subsonic Rotary Wing Aeronautics Research Program in Rotorcraft Crashworthiness

This paper provides an overview of rotorcraft crashworthiness research being conducted at NASA Langley Research Center under sponsorship of the Subsonic Rotary Wing (SRW) Aeronautics Program. The research is focused in two areas: development of an externally deployable energy attenuating concept and improved prediction of rotorcraft crashworthiness. The deployable energy absorber (DEA) is a composite honeycomb structure, with a unique flexible hinge design that allows the honeycomb to be packaged and remain flat until needed for deployment. The capabilities of the DEA have been demonstrated through component crush tests and vertical drop tests of a retrofitted fuselage section onto different surfaces or terrain. The research on improved prediction of rotorcraft crashworthiness is focused in several areas including simulating occupant responses and injury risk assessment, predicting multi-terrain impact, and utilizing probabilistic analysis methods. A final task is to perform a system-integrated simulation of a full-scale helicopter crash test onto a rigid surface. A brief description of each research task is provided along with a summary of recent accomplishments.

Jackson, Karen E.↗

NASA NTRS1986

CID overview

On December 1, 1984, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted the first remotely piloted air-to-ground crash test of a transport category aircraft. The Full-Scale Transport Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) was the culmination of 4 years of effort by the two agencies. NASA and the FAA had many objectives during the joint planning and execution of the Controlled Impact Demonstration. The structural loads experiment was very successful. Ninety-seven percent of the channels were active at impact. The data is still being assessed. Only a portion of the data is presented here; approximately 80 channels of data are available. Analysis of the remaining data is in progress. Interior photography was also very successful. One hundred percent of the cameras functioned. The film contains unique information on the development of fire and smoke in the interior of the aircraft. From a human tolerance point of view, the CID was simulation of a survivable crash.

Hayduk, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Development of airframe design technology for crashworthiness.

This paper describes the NASA portion of a joint FAA-NASA General Aviation Crashworthiness Program leading to the development of improved crashworthiness design technology. The objectives of the program are to develop analytical technology for predicting crashworthiness of structures, provide design improvements, and perform full-scale crash tests. The analytical techniques which are being developed both in-house and under contract are described, and typical results from these analytical programs are shown. In addition, the full-scale testing facility and test program are discussed.

Kruszewski, E. T.↗

NASA NTRS1975

NASA general aviation technology programs

This paper describes the status of the current NASA programs that are aimed at providing new technology for aircraft designs that will improve both safety and utility while reducing the environmental impact of general aviation to acceptable levels. Safety related areas that are discussed include the full scale crash test program and the stall/spin research effort. Among the programs addressing increased utility and performance, advanced airfoil developments and engine cooling drag reduction are discussed. Noise and emission reduction is a subject that is receiving significant emphasis within the NASA programs. Also included is a description of the current status of the hydrogen injection concept as a means of both lowering emissions and increasing fuel economy.

Winblade, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1979

NASA/FAA general aviation crash dynamics program - A status report

The objective of the Langley Research Center general aviation crash dynamics program is to develop technology for improved crash safety and occupant survivability in general aviation aircraft. The program involves three basic areas of research: controlled full-scale crash testing, nonlinear structural analyses to predict large deflection elasto-plastic response, and load attenuating concepts for use in improved seat and subfloor structure. Both analytical and experimental methods are used to develop expertise in these areas. Analyses include simplified procedures for estimating energy dissipating capabilities and complex computerized procedures for predicting airframe response. These analyses are being developed to provide designers with methods for predicting accelerations, loads, and displacements of collapsing structure. Tests on typical full-scale aircraft and on full- and sub-scale structural components are being performed to verify the analyses and to demonstrate load attenuating concepts.

Thomson, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS1979

NASA/FAA general aviation crash dynamics program - An update

Work in progress in the NASA/FAA General Aviation Crash Dynamics Program for the development of technology for increased crash-worthiness and occupant survivability of general aviation aircraft is presented. Full-scale crash testing facilities and procedures are outlined, and a chronological summary of full-scale tests conducted and planned is presented. The Plastic and Large Deflection Analysis of Nonlinear Structures and Modified Seat Occupant Model for Light Aircraft computer programs which form part of the effort to predict nonlinear geometric and material behavior of sheet-stringer aircraft structures subjected to large deformations are described, and excellent agreement between simulations and experiments is noted. The development of structural concepts to attenuate the load transmitted to the passenger through the seats and subfloor structure is discussed, and an apparatus built to test emergency locator transmitters in a realistic environment is presented.

Hayduk, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Survey of NASA research on crash dynamics

Ten years of structural crash dynamics research activities conducted on general aviation aircraft by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. Thirty-two full-scale crash tests were performed at Langley Research Center, and pertinent data on airframe and seat behavior were obtained. Concurrent with the experimental program, analytical methods were developed to help predict structural behavior during impact. The effects of flight parameters at impact on cabin deceleration pulses at the seat/occupant interface, experimental and analytical correlation of data on load-limiting subfloor and seat configurations, airplane section test results for computer modeling validation, and data from emergency-locator-transmitter (ELT) investigations to determine probable cause of false alarms and nonactivations are assessed. Computer programs which provide designers with analytical methods for predicting accelerations, velocities, and displacements of collapsing structures are also discussed.

Thomson, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS1986

NASA seat experiment and occupant responses

Results of the crash test of a remotely piloted transport aircraft instrumented to measure a NASA energy-absorbing transport seat are given. Human tolerance limits to acceleration and a dynamic response index model are discussed. It was found that the acceleration levels at the rear of the airplane were quite low and were below the stroking threshold of the NASA EA-seat. Therefore, dummies in the standard and EA-seat responded approximately the same. All longitudinal accelerations were quite low for the primary impact with very low forces measured in the lap belts. The vertical (spineward) acceleration levels measured in the dummies were also relatively low and very survivable from an impact tolerance standpoint. The pilot with an 18 G peak acceleration received by far the highest vertical acceleration and could have possibly received slight spinal injury.

Fasanella, E. L.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Video Event Trigger

Video event trigger (VET) processes video image data to generate trigger signal when image shows significant change like motion or appearance, disappearance, change in color, change in brightness, or dilation of object. System aids in efficient utilization of image-data-storage and image-data-processing equipment in applications in which many video frames show no changes and are wasteful to record and analyze all frames when only relatively few frames show changes of interest. Applications include video recording of automobile crash tests, automated video monitoring of entrances, exits, parking lots, and secure areas.

Williams, Glenn L.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Inviscid Design of Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Nozzles for a Real Gas

A straightforward procedure has been developed to quickly determine an inviscid design of a hypersonic wind tunnel nozzle when the test crash is both calorically and thermally imperfect. This real gas procedure divides the nozzle into four distinct parts: subsonic, throat to conical, conical, and turning flow regions. The design process is greatly simplified by treating the imperfect gas effects only in the source flow region. This simplification can be justified for a large class of hypersonic wind tunnel nozzle design problems. The final nozzle design is obtained either by doing a classical boundary layer correction or by using this inviscid design as the starting point for a viscous design optimization based on computational fluid dynamics. An example of a real gas nozzle design is used to illustrate the method. The accuracy of the real gas design procedure is shown to compare favorably with an ideal gas design based on computed flow field solutions.

Korte, J. J.↗