Summary of Vertical Drop Tests of YS-11 Transport Fuselage Sections

Structures and Materials Research Center of the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) conducted vertical drop tests of fuselage sections of a NAMC YS-11 A-200 transport airplane. This test program is a part of research activities in NAL on the structural crashworthiness of transport aircraft. In addition a cooperative research related to this test program has been carried out by NAL and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.(KHI). The main objectives of this program are to develop optimal numerical models for crash simulation of aircraft fuselage and to obtain background data by drop tests of full-scale fuselage sections under a controlled impact condition. Two sections of the fuselage structure with seats and passenger dummies were tested at different drop velocity to a rigid impact surface(concrete). Finite element models of the test articles for simulation of vertical drop tests were developed using a nonlinear dynamic analysis code, LS-DYNA3D. Correlation between test and analysis was fairly good. A summary of some of the results of full-scale fuselage section drop tests and the numerical simulation is presented in this paper.