Several key techniques for civil helicopter crashworthiness safety design and simulation

Civil helicopter's safety has increased our attention to the designing of crashworthy helicopter when subjected to crash incident. Crashworthiness technology strives to protect pilots or passengers by maintaining the structural integrity and by converting the kinetic energy into other forms; and at the same time, the lower crashing force the occupants are being undertaken, the more safer the occupants would obtain. This research involves a demonstration of possible crashworthiness enhancements to civil helicopter by adopting crashworthiness safety design, testing and evaluation techniques, and offers improved energy absorption in the event of a crash while maintaining adequate post-crash integrity. The key techniques for the civil helicopter crashworthiness design mentioned in this paper include: crash environment analysis, helicopter model for the post-crash analysis, determination of the dynamic failure criteria of typical structural components, design of the lightweight energy-absorbing structures and materials, design of the crashworthy fuel system, identification of human survival limits, safety design trade study and optimization, test techniques for crashworthiness safety design, and crashworthiness computer simulation and evaluation. At last, the authors conclude that the paper can provide with some theoretical instructions for new type civil helicopter crashworthiness design in an effort to enhance the overall safety of the traveling public.