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Numerical Simulation of Crash Impact Test for Fuel Tank of Rotorcraft  

Kim, Hyun-Gi (한국항공우주연구원 항공계통팀)
Kim, Sung-Chan (한국항공우주연구원 항공계통팀)
Lee, Jong-Won (한국항공우주연구원 미래비행체연구팀)
Hwang, In-Hee (한국항공우주연구원 항공구조팀)
Kim, Kyung-Soo ((주)프리즘)
Publication Information
Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea / v.24, no.5, 2011 , pp. 521-530 More about this Journal
Abstract
Since aircraft fuel tanks have many interfaces connected to the airframe as well as the fuel system, they have been considered as one of the system-dependent critical components. Crashworthy fuel tanks have been widely implemented to rotorcraft and rendered a great contribution for improving the survivability of crews and passengers. Since the embryonic stage of military rotorcraft history began, the US army has developed and practised a detailed military specification documenting the unique crashworthiness requirements for rotorcraft fuel tanks to prevent most, hopefully all, fatality due to post-crash fire. The mandatory crash impact test required by the relevant specification, MIL-DTL-27422D, has been recognized as a non-trivial mission and caused inevitable delay of a number of noticeable rotorcraft development programs such as that of V-22. The crash impact test itself takes a long-term preparation efforts together with costly fuel tank specimens. Thus a series of numerical simulations of the crash impact test with digital mock-ups is necessary even at the early design stage to minimize the possibility of trial-and-error with full-scale fuel tanks. In the present study the crash impact simulation of a few fuel tank configurations is conducted with the commercial package, Autodyn, and the resulting equivalent stresses and internal pressures are evaluated in detail to suggest a design improvement for the fuel tank configuration.
Keywords
fuel tank; crashworthiness; rotorcraft; crash impact test; MIL-DTL-27422D;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
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