Shock Response Analysis of Mechanical Hardware of Flight Data Recorder

Abstract

Electronic components used in aerospace applications such as Flight data recorder (FDR) and Cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used for the purpose of investigation of the flight accidents. The parts of FDR subjected to different types of vibration loads during flight. It results higher deformation and stresses in the parts of the structure. Sometimes structure failure can takes place due to internal collisions of parts. During the design and development of the FDR, it is very important to study the dynamic response of the parts to avoid the collision in between the parts. The present work deals with the analysis of FDR subjected to shock loads with and without stiffeners by using isotropic and composite materials. The structure of the flight data recorder was modeled in the finite element simulation software ANSYS 12 and analyzed for shock vibration loads in the form of base acceleration for both isotropic and composite materials. Carbon epoxy and e-glass epoxy materials are used as composite materials for few of the FDR parts. Proper boundary conditions (supports), mesh and connections between the mating parts are assigned to the FDR assembly. Carbon epoxy composite is recommended for few parts of FDR to reduce the weight by maintain the sufficient stiffness.