Methodologies for Predicting and Testing the Combat Damage on Flight Envelopes

Abstract

Abstract : Survivability of an aircraft in combat is achieved by not getting hit, or withstanding the effects of suffered hits. To assess the latter aspect of survivability of a given military aircraft, live-fire tests are performed on its wings. However, these tests may fail to provide accurate and complete vulnerability assessments, because the static and quasi-static ground loading techniques they currently rely on do not replicate the loads encountered during flight. This effort focuses on developing a numerical simulation technology for predicting the consequences of battle damage on the flight and flutter envelopes of fighters, assessing the impact of several contributors to aircraft survivability using full-order as reduced-order computational models, and assisting in the development of new dynamic live-fire testing methodologies that may remedy the shortcomings of current static ground-testing techniques. The report itself focuses on the technical achievements made during the first nine months of the third year of funding.