Vertical drop test of composite fuselage section of a regional aircraft

In this paper, a vertical drop test of a full composite fuselage section of a regional aircraft has been presented. This test was performed to investigate the structural response of a prototype of a composite fuselage section as well as the biomechanical response of the anthropomorphic dummies under a vertical crash loading condition. The research activity, carried out within the framework of Metodi di CERtificazione e Verifica Innovativi ed Avanzati (CERVIA) project, allowed collecting suitable amount of data for the assessment of the reliability of numerical models. The test article consists of a composite fuselage section with a diameter of 3445mmand a total length of 4750mm.It includes all main structural components, the passengers, and the cargo floor structure. Fuselage section has been also equipped with an aeronautical three-seat row. The accelerations, recorded in different locations, demonstrate that the structure is able to absorb a considerable impact energy amount, thus to mitigate the acceleration levels induced to the passengers.