• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

Military rotorcrafts are constantly exposed to risk from bullet impacts because they operate in a battle environment. Because bullet impact damage can be deadly to crews, the fuel tanks of military rotorcraft must be designed taking extreme situations into account. Fuel tank design factors to be considered include the internal fluid pressure, the structural stress on the part impacted, and the kinetic energy of bullet strikes. Verification testing using real objects is the best way to obtain these design data effectively, but this imposes substantial burdens due to the huge cost and necessity for long-term preparation. The use of various numerical simulation tests at an early design stage can reduce the risk of trial-and-error and improve the prediction of performance. The present study was an investigation of the effects of bullet impacts on a fuel tank assembly using numerical simulation based on SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics), and conducted using the commercial package, LS-DYNA. The resulting equivalent stress, internal pressure, and kinetic energy of the bullet were examined in detail to evaluate the possible use of this numerical method to obtain configuration design data for the fuel tank assembly.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.918-923
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• 2018

The main function of a fuel tank is to store fuel. On the other hand, the structural soundness of the fuel tank is related directly to the survival of the crew in an emergency situation, such as an aircraft crash, and the relevant performance is demonstrated by a crash impact test. Because crash impact tests have a high risk of failure due to the high impact loads, various efforts have been made to minimize the possibility of trial and error in the actual test at the beginning of the design. Numerical analysis performed before the actual test is a part of such efforts. For the results of numerical analysis to be reflected in the design, however, the reliability of numerical analysis needs to be ensured. In this study, the results of numerical analysis and actual test data were compared to ensure the reliability of numerical analysis for the crash impact test of a rotorcraft fuel tank. For the numerical analysis of a crash impact test, LS-DYNA, crash analysis software, was used and the ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) technique was applied as the analysis method. To obtain actual test data, strain gages were installed on the metal fittings of the fuel tank and linked to the data acquisition equipment. The strain and stress of the fuel tank fitting were calculated by numerical analysis. The reliability of the numerical analysis was enhanced by assessing the error between the strain measurement of the upper fitting obtained from an actual fuel tank and the strain calculated from numerical analysis.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.3736-3741
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• 2015

Crash impact test is conducted to verify the crashworthiness of fuel tank. Success of the crash impact test means the improvement of survivability of crews by preventing post-crash fire. But, there is a big risk of failure due to huge external load in the crash impact test. The failure of crash impact test can result in serious delay of a entire rotorcraft development because of the design complement and re-production of the test specimens requiring a long-term preparation. Thus, the numerical simulations of the crash impact test has been required at the early design stage to minimize the possibility of trial-and-error in the real test. Present study conducts on the numerical simulation of phase I crash impact test using SPH supported by crash simulation software, LS-DYNA. Test condition of MIL-DTL-27422 is reflected on analysis and material data is acquired by specimen test of fuel cell material. As a result, the crash load on the skin material, overlap area and metal fitting is estimated to confirm the possibility of acquisition of the design load for the determination of the overlap area and adhesive strength.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.605-611
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• 2019

The fuel sloshing due to the rapid manoeuvre of the aircraft causes significant loads on internal components, which may break components or piping. In particular, a significant load is applied to the joint of the external fuel tank by sloshing movement, which may affect the safety of the aircraft when the joint of the external fuel tank is damaged. Therefore, in order to improve the survivability of aircraft and crew members, the design of external fuel tanks, and joints should be performed after evaluating the sloshing load through a numerical analysis of the fuel sloshing conditions. In this paper, a numerical analysis was performed on the sloshing test of the external fuel tank for rotorcraft. ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) technique was used, and the test conditions specified in the U.S. Military Specification (MIL-DTL-27422D) was applied as the conditions for numerical analysis. As a result of the numerical analysis, the load on the joint of the external fuel tank was calculated. Moreover, the effects of sloshing movement on structural soundness were assessed through analysis of stress levels and margin of safety on metal fittings and composite containers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.397-416
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• 2020

Investigations of the commercial aircraft impact effect on nuclear island infrastructures have been drawing extensive attention, and this paper aims to perform the safety assessment of Generation III nuclear power plant (NPP) buildings subjected to typical commercial aircrafts crash. At present Part II, based on the verified finite element (FE) models of aircrafts Airbus A320 and A380, as well as the NPP containment and auxiliary buildings in Part I of this paper, the whole collision process is reproduced numerically by adopting the coupled missile-target interaction approach with the finite element code LS-DYNA. The impact induced damage of NPP plant under four impact locations of containment (cylinder, air intake, conical roof and PCS water tank) and two impact locations of auxiliary buildings (exterior wall and roof of spent fuel pool room) are evaluated. Furthermore, by considering the inner structures in the containment and raft foundation of NPP, the structural vibration analyses are conducted under two impact locations (middle height of cylinder, main control room in the auxiliary buildings). It indicates that, within the discussed scenarios, NPP structures can withstand the impact of both two aircrafts, while the functionality of internal equipment on higher floors will be affected to some extent under impact induced vibrations, and A380 aircraft will cause more serious structural damage and vibrations than A320 aircraft. The present work can provide helpful references to assess the safety of the structures and inner equipment of NPP plant under commercial aircraft impact.