Dynamic Simulation Techniques for the Design of Escape Systems: Current Applications and Future Air Force Requirements

Abstract : Research in biodynamics has made very significant contributions to the fulfillment of Air Force operational requirements in the area of emergency escape system design in certain select aspects. The development of dynamic models to describe the response of the human to given environments has provided the aircraft designer with a powerful design and evaluation tool expressed in his own engineering language. Multiple degree-of-freedom models currently used to study the performance of escape systems and the effects of the design of their subsystems can be modified to incorporate the biodynamic model to assess the influence of escape system model outputs on the human. The parameters of escape system components may thereby be varied analytically to study their effect on human response and, conversely, the analysis can also show the influence of human body dynamics upon the performance of the escape system.