Determination of Crash Test Pulses and Their Application to Aircraft Seat Analysis

Deceleration time histories (crash pulses) from a series of twelve light aircraft crash tests conducted at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) were analyzed to provide data for seat and airframe design for crashworthiness.

Two vertical drop tests at 12.8 m/s (42 ft/s) and 36 G peak deceleration (simulating one of the vertical light aircraft crash pulses) were made using an energy absorbing light aircraft seat prototype. Vertical pelvis acceleration measured in a 50 percentile dummy in the energy absorbing seat were found to be 45% lower than those obtained from the same dummy in a typical light aircraft seat.

A hybrid mathematical seat-occupant model was developed using the DYCAST nonlinear finite element computer code and was used to analyze a vertical drop test of the energy absorbing seat. Seat and occupant accelerations predicted by the DYCAST model compared quite favorably with experimental values.