Research status and future development of crashworthiness of civil aircraft fuselage structures: An overview

The crashworthy design, verification, and certification of civil aircraft fuselage structures are extremely important for the aviation safety and the survivability of crew and passengers in a crash event. To improve the crashworthy performance of civil aircraft, a building block approach is recommended with several levels, i.e. coupons - elements - details - sub-components - components - full-scale aircraft. Impact tests and numerical simulations are described according to the different levels of building block approach. Design methods for improving the crashworthiness of fuselage structures are introduced. The status of research to evaluate the sub-components (such as the sub-cargo structure); the components (such as the fuselage section); and, the full-scale aircraft is summarized. Finally, the current crashworthy verification methods and evaluation processes for civil aviation fuselage structures are highlighted. Future development of crashworthy design, verification, and certification of civil aircraft fuselage structures is proposed.