Developing crashworthy composite helicopter structures: A building block approach

This paper details the validation of a stacked-shell analysis methodology capable of simulating the progressive failure of composite energy absorbing structures. The simulations were performed with the explicit finite element solver PAM-CRASH. The predicted results are compared to experimental test data. A building block approach was used where the size and complexity of the analysed structures were incrementally increased. Overall the models were capable of predicting the failure modes and load vs. displacement response for all the analysed structures. The results presented herein illustrate that numerical models can, with experience, be used to predict the energy absorption of several composite structures of various configurations with a consistent set of material constants.