Simulation of fluid-solid interaction on water ditching of an airplane by ALE method

Ditching is considered as one of the important aspects of safety performances of airplanes. It is related primarily with the fluid-solid interaction, whose studies mainly depend on experiments at the present time. Numerical and analytical methods for fluid-solid interaction by using 3-D full scale airplane's model will reduce the dependence on the expensive model tests. Numerical studies can be used to estimate the safety of ditching and provide a reference for the crashworthiness design. This article proposes a 3-D dynamical structural model after the real shape of an airplane and an Arbitrary Lagrange-Euler (ALE) fluid-field model, to simulate the fluid-solid interactions caused by low speed ditching. The simulation is based on interaction computational methods, within LS-DYNA nonlinear finite-element code. The results of pressure distributions and accelerating time histories of the airplane's subfloor are discussed in the context of the safety of ditching, and the simulation results and the analytical methods are verified.