28th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 23 - 28 September 2012, Brisbane, Australia
Paper ICAS2012-8.1ST

EXPERIMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ACTIVE CRUSHING ELEMENT USING PRESSURIZED COMPOSITE TUBES

T. Hou, G. Pearce*, B. G. Prusty*, S. H. Lim*, D. Kelly*, R. Thomson**
UNSW / CRC-ACS, Australia; *UNSW, Australia; **CRC-ACS / ACS Australia Pty Ltd, Australia

Keywords: crashworthiness, composite,pressurized tube crashworthiness, composite, pressurized tube

A novel concept with variable crushing loads has been proposed to improve helicopter crashworthiness. In the present study, a crushing element using pressurized composite tube was designed and tested. The results showed the significant improvement in energy absorption and the crushing stroke can be fully expended under all accident scenarios.

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