Influence of Additive Manufactured Seats on the Passive Safety of Full Composite Aircrafts

Since the dawn of aviation, the search for methods to prevent accidents and improve passenger safety has been a topic of continuing interest. Specifically, studies in the crashworthiness field have investigated countless structural solutions and protective mechanisms aimed at protecting the passenger and minimizing the risk of injury in the event of a crash landing. All components of the fuselage structure and internal components contribute to the response of the whole structure to an impact and need to be designed to maximize their contribution to protect passengers as much as possible. In this work, the influence of different materials on the crashworthiness features of an aircraft seat has been investigated by comparing two materials for the seat frame and two for the cushion. The study also explores the use of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for the seat frame, enabling its employment in innovative, effective and crashworthy seat’s design. The aim was to identify the best material combination for reducing impact loads on passengers by simulating the drop test of a composite fuselage barrel section in the LS-DYNA environment and using a dummy to assess the perceived lumbar loads during the impact. Comparison of different combinations of materials identified a possible design solution for the seat able to reduce the lumbar load perceived by the dummy by up to 46%.