Abstract
Aircraft certification requires demonstrating an aircraft’s structural capacity to withstand hydrodynamic loads as experienced during an emergency landing on water known as ditching. Currently employed means to analyze ditching comprise comparison with previously certified aircraft, sub-scale experimental testing, and semi-analytical as well as uncoupled computational methods; all of these are subject to simplifications that limit their predictability and accuracy. Therefore, there is the motivation to employ advanced, coupled numerical simulations to enhance the analysis capabilities. This paper presents a numerical simulation approach combining Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Finite Element method, which permits investigating the structural behavior under ditching loads within one simulation. Comprehensive validation studies based on comparison with experimental results from novel guided ditching experiments of generic panels in aeronautical design have been undertaken and high accuracy has been achieved regarding acting force and strain time histories. Additionally, the profound analysis of the structural behavior of flexible panels allows assessing the main mechanisms that cause the acting hydrodynamic loads to increase significantly when the structure is being deformed. Presented results extend the fundamental knowledge in this field. The validated simulation approach is finally applied to analyze the structural behavior of a detailed stringer-frame-reinforced panel representing a generic aircraft bottom fuselage structure. Comparison between the structural behavior of the generic panels and the aft fuselage structure is established. Furthermore, conclusions with regard to ditching simulations involving larger or even full aircraft structures are drawn.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Office national d’études et de recherches aérospatiales—The French aerospace lab.
The tensile instability in SPH refers to the occurrence of particle clumping, which yields poor results. A stability analysis and further details are reported in [30].
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto Nazionale per Studi ed Esperienze di Architettura Navale Vasca Navale
EU-FP7 project SMart Aircraft in Emergency Situations
References
Abrate, S.: Hull Slamming. Applied Mechanics Reviews 64(6) (2011). doi:10.1115/1.4023571
Benítez Montañés, L., Climent Máñez, H., Siemann, M., Kohlgrueber, D.: Ditching Numerical Simulations: Recent Steps in Industrial Applications. In: Aerospace Structural Impact Dynamics International Conference. Wichita, USA (2012)
Benz, W.: Smooth particle hydrodynamics: a review. The Numerical Modelling of Nonlinear Stellar Pulsatations pp. 269–288 (1990)
Climent, H., Benítez, L., Rosich, F., Rueda, F., Pentecôte, N.: Aircraft ditching numerical simulation. In: 25th International Congress of the Aeronautical Sciences. Hamburg, Germany (2006)
Colagrossi, A.: A Meshless Lagrangian method for free-surface and interface flows with fragmentation. Ph.D. thesis, University of Rome La Sapienza (2003)
ESI Group: Virtual Performance Solution 2010: Explicit Solver Refrence Manual (2010)
ESI Group: Virtual Performance Solution 2010: Solver Notes Manual (2010)
Groenenboom, P.H.L., Siemann, M.H.: Fluid-structure interaction by the mixed SPH-FE Method with application to aircraft ditching. In: Conference on SPH and Particle Methods for Fluids and Fluid Structure Interaction. Lille, France (2015)
Hiermaier, S.J.: Structures under crash and impact: continuum mechanics, discretization and experimental characterization. Springer, New York (2008)
Hughes, K., Campbell, J.: Helicopter crashworthiness: a chronological review of water impact related research from 1982 to 2006. J. Am. Helicopter Soc. 53(4), 429–442 (2008). doi:10.4050/JAHS.53.429
Hughes, K., Campbell, J., Vignjevic, R.: Application of the finite element method to predict the crashworthy response of a metallic helicopter under floor structure onto water. Int. J. Impact Eng. 35(5), 347–362 (2008). doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.03.009
Hughes, K., Vignjevic, R., Campbell, J.: Experimental observations of an 8 m/s drop test of a metallic helicopter underfloor structure onto water: part 2. J. Aerosp. Eng. 221, 679–690 (2007). doi:10.1243/09544100JAERO228
Hughes, K., Vignjevic, R., Campbell, J., DeVuyst, T., Djordjevic, N., Papagiannis, L.: From aerospace to offshore: bridging the numerical simulation gaps-simulation advancements for fluid structure interaction problems. Int. J. Impact Eng. 61, 48–63 (2013). doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2013.05.001
Hughes, T.J.R., Tezduyar, T.E.: Finite elements based upon mindlin plate theory with particular reference to the four-node bilinear lsoparametric element. J. Appl. Mech. 48, 587–596 (1981)
Iafrati, A.: Experimental investigation of the water entry of a rectangular plate at high horizontal velocity. Journal of Fluid Mechanics pp. 637–672 (2016). doi:10.1017/jfm.2016.374
Iafrati, A., Grizzi, S., Siemann, M.H., Benítez Montañés, L.: High-speed ditching of a flat plate: experimental data and uncertainty assessment. J. Fluids Struct. 55(May), 501–525 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2015.03.019
Jackson, K.E., Fasanella, E.L., Lyle, K.H.: Crash certification by analysis—are we there yet. In: American Helicopter Society 62nd Annual Forum. Phoenix, AZ, USA (2006)
Ma, Z.H., Causon, D.M., Qian, L., Mingham, C.G., Mai, T., Greaves, D., Raby, A.: Pure and aerated water entry of a flat plate. Physics of Fluids 28(1) (2016). DOI 10.1063/1.4940043
Macià, F., Souto-Iglesias, A., Antuono, M., Colagrossi, A.: Benefits of using a Wendland kernel for free-surface flows. In: 6th international SPHERIC workshop, pp. 30–37. Hamburg, Germany (2011)
Monaghan, J.J.: Shock simulation by the particle method SPH. J. Comput. Phys. 52, 374–389 (1983)
Monaghan, J.J.: On the problem of penetration in particle methods. J. Comput. Phys. 82(1), 1–15 (1989). doi:10.1016/0021-9991(89)90032-6
Monaghan, J.J.: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 30, 543–574 (1992)
Monaghan, J.J.: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics. Rep. Prog. Phys. 68(8), 1703–1759 (2005). doi:10.1088/0034-4885/68/8/R01
Parshikov, A.N., Medin, S.A.: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics using interparticle contact algorithms. J. Comput. Phys. 180(1), 358–382 (2002). doi:10.1006/jcph.2002.7099
Parshikov, A.N., Medin, S.A., Loukashenko, I.I., Milekhin, V.A.: Improvements in SPH method by means of interparticle contact algorithm and analysis of perforation tests at moderate projectile velocities. Int. J. Impact Eng. 24, 779–796 (2000). doi:10.1016/S0734-743X(99)00168-2
Patel, A.A., Greenwood Jr., R.P.: Transport water impact and ditching performance. Tech. rep, FAA, Washington, D. C., USA (1996)
Pearce, G.M., Johnson, A.F., Thomson, R.S., Kelly, D.W.: Experimental investigation of dynamically loaded bolted joints in carbon fibre composite structures. Appl. Compos. Mater. 17(3), 271–291 (2009). doi:10.1007/s10443-009-9120-8
Siemann, M.H.: Numerical and experimental investigation of the structural behavior during aircraft emergency landing on water. Doctoral thesis, University of Stuttgart (2016)
Siemann, M.H., Schwinn, D.B., Scherer, J., Kohlgrüber, D.: Advances in numerical ditching simulation of flexible aircraft models. In: 2nd Aerospace Structural Impact Dynamics International Conference. Seville, Spain (2015)
Swegle, J.W., Hicks, D.L., Attaway, S.W.: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics stability analysis. J. Comput. Phys. 116, 123–134 (1995)
Tait, P.G.: Report on some of the physical properties of fresh water and sea water. Phys. Chem. 2, 1–76 (1888)
Toso, N.: Contribution to the modelling and simulation of aircraft structures impacting on water. Doctoral thesis, University of Stuttgart (2009). doi:10.18419/opus-3823
Waimer, M., Kohlgrüber, D., Keck, R., Voggenreiter, H.: Contribution to an improved crash design for a composite transport aircraft fuselagedevelopment of a kinematics model and an experimental component test setup. CEAS Aeronaut. J. 4(3), 265–275 (2013). doi:10.1007/s13272-013-0070-3
Wendland, H.: Piecewise polynomial, positive definite and compactly supported radial functions of minimal degree. Adv. Comput. Math. 4, 389–396 (1995). doi:10.1007/BF02123482
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This paper is based on a presentation at the German Aerospace Congress, September 13–15, 2016, Braunschweig, Germany.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Siemann, M.H., Kohlgrüber, D. & Voggenreiter, H. Numerical simulation of flexible aircraft structures under ditching loads. CEAS Aeronaut J 8, 505–521 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-017-0257-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-017-0257-0