Overview
Thanks to the confidence gained in the numerical simulation methods through correlation with a wide range of tests, nonlinear “realistic simulations” are taking more and more place in the design and sizing of aeronautical components during development and Certification phases. Airworthiness Authorities agree more and more to use the “virtual testing” or “realistic simulations” as means of compliance for all the items for which an acceptable level of validation of methodologies has been demonstrated.
The main objective of the TIOC-Wing project is the development and the validation of criteria and a virtual testing methodology that will allow to predict the resistance of a representative stiffened composite wing panel subjected to the impact of tyre debris and the residual strength capability of the damaged structure.
This will be reached by means of a test program focused on tyre debris impact events on composite aircraft structures and using the acquired experimental data to develop and validate numerical computational tools. The Consortium of TIOC-Wing project joins expertise in composite material knowledge, testing and manufacturing, in tyre tread impact testing and numerical simulations from 3 partners: SONACA, DGA-TA and CENAERO coming from Aeronautical Industry, referenced Test Laboratory in foreign objects impact capabilities and Research and Technology Center in advanced numerical simulations.
TIOC-Wing will give the opportunity for the partners of the Consortium to enhance the level of expertise in the field of foreign objects impact aircraft vulnerability. For the industrial partners, the anticipation of such particular risks in the early stage of the development of an aircraft will reduce inherent costs due to possible modifications in a more advanced phase of the program, needed to satisfy the Certification requirements. This also enables an increase in the competitiveness through innovation by integration of advanced computational tools in the sizing loop. Decrease of development tests will have as consequence the decrease of non recurrent costs.
Finally, during future development of the next generation of aircraft thanks to less conservative approaches, TIOC-Wing offers the means for possible optimization of design concepts and weight savings strategies with reducing the CO2 emissions.