Impulse Analysis of Airplane Crash Data with Consideration Given to Human Tolerance

An impulse-momentum analysis was conducted of crash deceleration pulse data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) crash dynamics program on general aviation airplanes and transport crash data available in the literature. The purpose of the analysis was to correlate crash data with flight parameters at impact.

In the analysis, assumptions made to simplify the complex crash scenario led to uncoupled equations for the normal and longitudinal floor impulses (product of deceleration and time) in the cabin area of the airplane. Analytical expressions for structural crushing during impact and for the airplane horizontal slide-out were also determined. Good agreement was found between the experimental and analytical data for the general aviation and transport airplanes over a relatively wide range of impact parameters. Three applications, are presented: (1) post-crash evaluation of crash parameters, (2) development of a crash scenario, and (3) correlation with human factors considerations.