scholarly journals Optimization Simulation of the Light Aircraft’s Cockpit Made of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pu-Woei Chen ◽  
Chia-Hung Liu
Keyword(s):  
Aluminum Alloy ◽  
Topology Optimization ◽  
Carbon Fiber ◽  
Energy Absorption ◽  
Fiber Reinforced Composites ◽  
Reinforced Composites ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites ◽  
Carbon Fiber Reinforced ◽  
The Impact

Due to the demands of personal travels and entertainments, light airplanes and small business aircrafts are developing rapidly. Light airplane structure is simple; however, it lacks crashworthiness design, especially the considerations on the impact of energy absorption. Therefore, in an event of accident, significant damage to passengers will be usually incurred. Airplanes made of composite materials structurally have high specific strength and good aerodynamic configuration. These materials have become the primary choice for new airplane development. This study mainly explores the topology optimization analysis of the light aircraft’s cockpit made of carbon fiber reinforced composites. This paper compares the compression amounts in the original models of composite material and aluminum alloy fuselages with the models after optimization during the crash-landing, in order to investigate the safety of fuselages made of different materials after structural optimization under the dynamic crashing. This study found that the energy absorbed by the aluminum alloy fuselage during crash-landing is still higher than that by the carbon fiber reinforced composites fuselage. On the other hand, the aluminum alloy fuselage after topology optimization could have an energy absorption capability enhanced by 40%, as compared to the that of the original model of aluminum alloy fuselage.

scholarly journals Evaluation on crashworthiness and energy absorption of composite light airplane

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 168781401879408
Author(s):  
Pu-Woei Chen ◽  
Ya-Yun Lin
Keyword(s):  
Aluminum Alloy ◽  
Carbon Fiber ◽  
Energy Absorption ◽  
Fiber Reinforced Composites ◽  
Reinforced Composites ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Glass Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites ◽  
Carbon Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Impact Angles

The main aim of this study was to explore the safety differences when using aluminum alloy and three different fiber reinforced composites as material for the cockpit and fuselage of light aircraft under crash landing. In accordance with the cockpit reduction amount stipulated by MIL-STD-1290A in which the reducing rates in all directions cannot exceed 15%, this study established the safety zones of impact speeds and impact angles. The overall safety zones of the carbon fiber reinforced composites and glass fiber reinforced composites cockpits were higher than that of the aluminum alloy cockpit by 38.56% and 32.12%, respectively. Among the four different fuselage materials, when carbon fiber reinforced composites was used as the cockpit material, except that the reducing rate for the crashing in the Y direction was slightly higher than the aluminum alloy cockpit, the reducing rate in the X direction and the inclined beam A direction during crashes were less than other materials, and the safety of its overall cockpit was also the most superior to other materials. The energy absorption capability of the aluminum alloy fuselage was better than the fuselages of all composite materials.

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