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Procedia Engineering 80 (2014) 59 65

3rd International Symposium on Aircraft Airworthiness, ISAA 2013

Crashworthiness Simulation Research of Fuselage Section

with Composite Skin
MOU Haolei a*, ZOU Tianchuna, FENG Zhenyua, REN Jiana
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Civil Aircraft Airworthiness and Maintenance,
Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, P.R.China

Abstract
For the demand of crashworthiness design and certification of composite fuselage section, the influences of
composite skin on composite fuselage section crashworthiness have been studied. A finite element model of fuselage
section with sub-floor waved-plates is developed, and the dynamic responses of composite fuselage section subjected
to vertical impact velocity of 6.67m/s are analyzed in LS-DYNA, and the effects on composite fuselage section
crashworthiness are further investigated by changing the ply numbers and ply angles. The failure modes and
acceleration history curves of composite fuselage section under different conditions are given. The results show that
the composite fuselage section crashworthiness can be effectively improved by selecting appropriate composite ply
numbers and ply angles.
2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of ENAC
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Airworthiness Technologies Research Center, Beihang University/NLAA.
Keywords: Crashworthiness; Composite skin; Fuselage section; Dynamic response

1. Introduction
In recent twenty years, crashworthiness design and certification have been and will continue to be the
main concern in aviation safety. The fuselage section should be designed to have the crashworthy
capabilities to improve the occupant survivability during a crash [1, 2, 3]. Composite materials are being
increasingly used in commercial aviation because of their high strength/weight and stiffness/weight ratios
and reduction in manufacturing time compared with traditional metallic materials. Along with these
advantages, composite materials also have excellent energy-absorbing performance during impact and

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-022-24092312; fax: +86-022-24092311.

E-mail address: mhl589@163.com.

1877-7058 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Airworthiness Technologies Research Center, Beihang University/NLAA.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.09.060

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crash events [4, 5, 6]. However, the increasing use of composite materials in aircraft structures also brings
further challenges for the aircraft crashworthiness design and certification [7].
The crashworthiness design and certification of composite aircrafts have been studied by NASA and
AIRBUS earlier. The full-scale crash tests of composite aircrafts, such as Beech Starship, CirrusSR-20
and Lancair etc, were carried on by NASA Langley Research Center in 1990s. The tests results showed
that these composite aircrafts had perfect crashworthiness [8, 9]. The EU also had conducted a lot of work
on crashworthiness design and certification of composite aircrafts. AIRBUS participated in the
CRASURV (The Design for Crash Survivability) program donated by the EU, and put forward a complete
set of crashworthy test methods for composite aircraft, and evaluated the crashworthiness of A380 based
on these test methods [10]. Although some researches have been conducted on the impact responding
characteristics of composite fuselage section in the U.S. and EU so far, the crashworthiness researches of
composite fuselage section are relatively fewer and simple, and have not investigated the effects of
composite ply parameters on the aircraft crashworthiness.
The finite element method was used to research the crashworthy performance of composite fuselage
section with different composite ply parameters. The finite element model of composite fuselage section
was built in HyperMesh, and the nonlinear finite element code LS-DYNA was used to dynamically
simulate the drop test of composite fuselage sections. The failure modes and acceleration responses of
composite fuselage section were obtained and analyzed based on our researches. The results gave some
advice regarding crashworthiness design and certification of composite fuselage sections.
2. Finite element model of composite fuselage section
A finite element model of fuselage section with sub-floor waved-plates was developed. The finite
element model of fuselage section with a double elliptical section consists of the cabin and cargo. The
radiuses of cabin and cargo are 1700 mm and 1600 mm, respectively. The length of fuselage section is
2200 mm. The fuselage section has five frames and three rows of seats. The overall finite element model
consists of 609367 nodes and 616625 shell elements. Key components of finite element model are shown
in Fig.1, which including composite skin, frames, stringers, seat tracks, cabin floor and oblique struts,
cargo floor and waved-plates. Because of the large size and complexity of real fuselage section structure,
the finite element model of fuselage section was reasonably simplified during the modeling process based
on the simplified principles described by Adams and Lankarani [11] and Ikuo et al. [12].

Left outside

Right outside
Left inside

Right inside

Fig. 1. The finite element model of fuselage section; (a) Fuselage section and rigid surface; (b) Skin of fuselage section; (c) Main
frame of fuselage section;

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Four kinds of materials are used in finite element model of composite fuselage section, which
including Al-2024-T3, Al-7075-T6, Al-7150-T77511 and composite material T300/QY8911. Al-2024-T3
is used for the cargo floor. Al-7075-T6 is used for frames, stringers and wave-plates. Al-7150-T77511 is
used for seat tracks, floor beams and oblique struts. These three materials adopt MATL24 material model
with the bilinear elastic-plastic properties. The composite material T300/QY8911 is only used for
fuselage skin and adopts MATL59 material model. The mechanical properties of materials used in the
overall fuselage section are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 [13, 14].
Table 1. The Aluminium mechanical properties
Material

Al-2024-T3
3

Al-7075-T6

Al-7150-T77511

Density (kg/m )

2760

2794

2823

Modulus of Elasticity (GPa)

66.33

71.02

71.02

Poisson's Ratio

0.33

0.35

0.35

Yield Modulus(MPa)

243

362

538

Enhanced Modulus(MPa)

826.7

1001.8

679

Maximum strain

0.1463

0.0449

0.07

Table 2. Material properties of T300/QY8911 unidirectional laminates

Parameter

Value

Description

, kg/m3

1570

Density

E1, GPa

135

Youngs modulus longitudinal direction

E2, GPa

8.8

Youngs modulus Transverse direction

12, GPa

0.2

Poissons ratio

G12, GPa

4.47

Shear modulus of elasticity

Xt, MPa

1548

Longitudinal tensile strength

Xc, MPa

1226

Longitudinal compressive strength

Yt, MPa

55.5

Transverse tensile strength

Yc, MPa

218

Transverse compressive strength

S12, MPa

89.9

Shear strength

The Belytschko-Tsay shell element has been adopted because the shell element usage has the
advantages of being able to more accurately and effectively simulate buckling, as well as calculate
internal energy absorption during a crash.
The impact mass has an important influence on crashworthiness of composite fuselage section, the
masses of seats and dummies were accounted as concentrated masses located at the junctions between
seats and floor. The concentrated mass of each seat and dummy is defined to 88 kg according to Federal
Aviation Regulation 25.562(b), and the fuselage section has twelve concentrated masses. There are three
rows of seats in the finite element model, and due to the limit of the constraints, the calculated results of
the first row and the third row of seats may be inaccurate. So the acceleration responses of the junction
between middle row of seats and floor are output. The four locations of acceleration results on seat tracks
are shown in Fig.1(a).
The vertical crash direction of the model is parallel to the normal direction of rigid wall, and the
vertical impact velocity of 6.67 m/s is selected to evaluate the crashworthiness of composite fuselage

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section without considering aerodynamic force. Based on the penalty algorithm, Automatic_Single_
Surface_Contact was used to define the contact relationships among composite skin, fuselage frames and
rigid ground.
3. Effects of composite ply number on crashworthiness properties of fuselage section
3.1. Effects of composite ply number on failure mode of fuselage section
The crashworthiness of fuselage section with different composite ply numbers was researched because
it is essential to consider the effects of composite ply number on composite structures failure modes. The
ply numbers of composite skin were 18, 22 and 26, respectively. The composite ply angles were
[90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s, [90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90/45/0]s and [90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/45/90]s, respectively, and each layer thickness is 0.12mm. Fig.2 showed the stress clouds of fuselage
sections with different composite ply numbers at 100ms.
Fig.2 showed that the deformation and failure modes of three composite fuselage sections were similar.
The energy was mainly absorbed by the destruction of composite skin, oblique struts, fuselage frame, and
the deformation of waved-plates and the bottom of fuselage section. Compared with the other two cases,
the concentrated stress of fuselage bottom frame was smaller, and the maximum stress of fuselage frame
was larger obviously when the composite ply number was 26. It indicated that the failure mode of the
bottom of fuselage section was stable. Therefore, with the increasing of composite ply number, the failure
of composite fuselage section was more stable, but the stress distribution value increased correspondingly.

Fig. 2. The stress clouds of fuselage sections with different composite ply numbers, t=100ms; (a) The composite ply number is 18;
(b) The composite ply number is 22; (c) The composite ply number is 26;

3.2. Effects of composite ply number on acceleration characteristics

In order to compare the acceleration characteristics of fuselage section with different composite skin
ply numbers, the acceleration responses of the junctions between left outside/right inside seats and floor
were obtained because the finite element model of composite fuselage section was symmetrical. Fig.3
showed the acceleration history curves of three fuselage sections with different composite ply numbers.
The peak accelerations of the junctions between outside seats and floor were larger than those of the
junctions between inside seats and floor, respectively. Fig.3(a) showed that the initial peak acceleration
was at maximum, and the maximum peak acceleration was relatively smaller when the composite ply
number was 22. The peak acceleration came earlier a bit with the increasing of composite ply number. In

Mou Haolei et al. / Procedia Engineering 80 (2014) 59 65

Acceleration/g

Acceleration/g

general, the crashworthiness of composite fuselage section can be effectively improved by selecting a
suitable composite skin ply number.

Time/ms

Time/ms

Fig. 3. Acceleration responses of the junctions between seats and floor with different composite ply numbers; (a) Left outside seat;
(b) Right inside seat;

4. Effects of composite ply angle on crashworthiness properties of fuselage section

4.1. Effects of composite ply angle on failure mode of fuselage section
According to FAA AC 20-107B, the effects of composite ply angle also needed to be researched
except for the effects of composite ply number on composite structure crashworthiness. The composite
skin ply angles are [0/90]18, [45]18, [90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s, respectively. The composite skin
consists of 18 layers and each layer thickness is 0.12mm. Fig.4(a) and (b) and Fig.2(a) showed the stress
clouds of fuselage section with different composite skin ply angles [0/90]18, [ 45]18, and [90/45/0/45/90/45/0/-45/90]s at 100ms.
The failure modes of three composite fuselage sections were similar. The energy was mainly absorbed
by the buckling and destruction of frames, composite skin, oblique struts and waved-plates. Compared
with the other two cases, the concentrated stress of fuselage bottom frame was smaller, and the maximum
stress of fuselage frame was larger obviously when the composite ply angle was [45]18, which indicated
that the failure of the bottom of fuselage section was stable. When the composite ply angle was selected
to [90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s, the concentrated stress resulting from the deformation of fuselage
bottom frame was smaller than the composite ply angle was [0/90]18, and the maximum stress value was
also smaller relatively. The stress value can be decreased effectively when the composite ply angles were
selected to [45]18 or [90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s. Therefore, the crashworthiness of fuselage section
can be improved by selecting suitable composite skin ply angle.

Fig. 4. The stress clouds of fuselage sections with different composite ply angles, t=100ms; (a) The composite ply angle is [0/90]18;
(b) The composite ply angle is [f45]18;

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4.2. Effects of composite ply angle on acceleration characteristics

To compare the acceleration characteristics of fuselage section with different composite ply angles, the
acceleration responses of the junctions between left outside/right inside seats and floor were obtained in
our work. Fig.5 showed the acceleration history curves of the fuselage section with different composite
ply angles, corresponding to[0/90]18, [45]18, and [90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s, respectively.
The peak accelerations of the junctions between outside seats and floor were larger than those of the
junctions between inside seats and floor, respectively. Figure 5(a) showed that the peak acceleration was
larger when the composite ply angle was [0/90]18 or [45]18. When the composite ply angle was
[90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s, the peak acceleration was minimal and the energy-absorbing process was
the most stable. Therefore, it was feasible to improve the crashworthiness of fuselage section by selecting
suitable composite ply angle based on our researches.

Time/ms

[0/90]18
[45]18
[90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s

Acceleration/g

Acceleration/g

[0/90]18
[45]18
[90/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/90]s

Time/ms

Fig. 5. Acceleration responses of the junctions between seats and floor with different composite ply angles; (a) Left outside seat; (b)
Right inside seat;

5. Conclusion
The influence of composite ply numbers and ply angles on crashworthiness of composite fuselage
section were studied in the paper. The main conclusions were listed as follows:
(1) The composite ply number can greatly influence on the crashworthiness of fuselage section. With
the increasing of composite ply number, the failure of composite fuselage section was more stable, but the
stress distribution value increased, and the peak acceleration came earlier. In general, the crashworthiness
of fuselage section can be improved by selecting suitable composite skin ply number.
(2) The composite ply angle also can greatly influence on the crashworthiness of fuselage section. The
peak acceleration was smaller and the energy-absorbing process was more stable when the composite ply
angles were selected to 45 or 0, 45, 90, and the stress value of fuselage section decreased
effectively. Therefore, it is feasible to improve the crashworthiness of fuselage section by selecting
suitable composite ply angle.
6. Copyright
All authors must sign the Transfer of Copyright agreement before the article can be published. This
transfer agreement enables Elsevier to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but does not
relinquish the authors' proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce
and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other

Mou Haolei et al. / Procedia Engineering 80 (2014) 59 65

reproductions of similar nature and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright
holder permission to reproduce any figures for which copyright exists.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the science and technology item from the Civil Aviation Administration
of China (NO. MHRD201010) and supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities (NO. ZXH2012B004).

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