Survivability is defined as the capability of a platform to avoid or withstand a man-made hostile environment. Military aircraft in particular, but also other kinds of platforms subjected to external, impacting threat...Survivability is defined as the capability of a platform to avoid or withstand a man-made hostile environment. Military aircraft in particular, but also other kinds of platforms subjected to external, impacting threats, are commonly designed according to increasing survivability requirements. The concept of survivability was first formalized by R. Ball in 1985 in its seminal work on combat aircraft survivability.On the basis of the theory presented in his work, many computer programs have been developed which implement the modelling techniques and computations required by vulnerability assessments. However,a clear and general view of the operative computational procedures is still lacking. Moreover, to date only a limited number of applications to helicopter platforms have been investigated in the survivability field,even though these platforms experience numerous flight conditions exposing the system to different types of threats. In this context, this work aims at establishing a multi-purpose general framework for the vulnerability assessment of different types of platforms subjected to external threats, with a focus on helicopters. The in-house software specifically developed for this application is here described in detail and employed to present a case study on a representative military helicopter.展开更多
Damage tolerant methodology is increasingly used in aeronautical components,especially due the fact that the Aviation Regulation requires such an assessment in case an accidental damage occurs.At present,there is a st...Damage tolerant methodology is increasingly used in aeronautical components,especially due the fact that the Aviation Regulation requires such an assessment in case an accidental damage occurs.At present,there is a strong and actual interest in applying such procedures to helicopter components that are subjected to high frequency cyclic loads.In this paper,an investigation on a damaged transmission shaft for a tail rotor transmission of an actual helicopter has been carried out focusing on the fatigue crack propagation.A complete sequence of experimental tests was performed in order to create an actual ballistic damage and to subsequently check the damage tolerant behaviour.The shaft was damaged by oblique ballistic impact and was subsequently subjected to torsional fatigue loading.During the fatigue cycles several cracks propagated from the ballistic damages.Both of these steps(impact and fatigue loading)were also simulated by a complex modelling approach based on Finite Element Models and fracture mechanics theory.The comparison between the experimental and numerical results shows a good agreement but it underlines the need for a very refined modelling technique capable to replicate all the features associated with the damage in order to reliably simulate the subsequent propagation phase.展开更多
文摘Survivability is defined as the capability of a platform to avoid or withstand a man-made hostile environment. Military aircraft in particular, but also other kinds of platforms subjected to external, impacting threats, are commonly designed according to increasing survivability requirements. The concept of survivability was first formalized by R. Ball in 1985 in its seminal work on combat aircraft survivability.On the basis of the theory presented in his work, many computer programs have been developed which implement the modelling techniques and computations required by vulnerability assessments. However,a clear and general view of the operative computational procedures is still lacking. Moreover, to date only a limited number of applications to helicopter platforms have been investigated in the survivability field,even though these platforms experience numerous flight conditions exposing the system to different types of threats. In this context, this work aims at establishing a multi-purpose general framework for the vulnerability assessment of different types of platforms subjected to external threats, with a focus on helicopters. The in-house software specifically developed for this application is here described in detail and employed to present a case study on a representative military helicopter.
文摘Damage tolerant methodology is increasingly used in aeronautical components,especially due the fact that the Aviation Regulation requires such an assessment in case an accidental damage occurs.At present,there is a strong and actual interest in applying such procedures to helicopter components that are subjected to high frequency cyclic loads.In this paper,an investigation on a damaged transmission shaft for a tail rotor transmission of an actual helicopter has been carried out focusing on the fatigue crack propagation.A complete sequence of experimental tests was performed in order to create an actual ballistic damage and to subsequently check the damage tolerant behaviour.The shaft was damaged by oblique ballistic impact and was subsequently subjected to torsional fatigue loading.During the fatigue cycles several cracks propagated from the ballistic damages.Both of these steps(impact and fatigue loading)were also simulated by a complex modelling approach based on Finite Element Models and fracture mechanics theory.The comparison between the experimental and numerical results shows a good agreement but it underlines the need for a very refined modelling technique capable to replicate all the features associated with the damage in order to reliably simulate the subsequent propagation phase.