Description and operational capabilities

Aerospace Structures Impact Laboratory (LISA) has been operational since 2002. In the same year, the ENAC authority has recognized the operational capability of the crash facility through the CIT certification.

LISA is able to perform high-energy impact tests on the ground or in water of full-scale aerospace structures.

The main performance of the facility is to ensure a guided trajectory of the test article.

LISA operational capabilities are the following:

weight of test article up to 10 tons;
impact velocity up to 20 m / sec;
ability to define the test article attitude;
velocity accuracy +/-5%;
Attitude angle accuracy +/-1o.

LISA facility comprises an horizontal slide for the execution of tests on scaled models in the emergency landing and ditching conditions on two different impact surfaces (soft water and soil).

The sled capability are the following:

weight of test article up to 1000 kg;
impact velocity up to 30 m/sec;
velocity accuracy +/-5%.

Technical Features

LISA facility is designed for the crash experimental analysis of full-scale aerospace structures. The test can be performed only on large sections of fuselage in case of the dimensions of the test article exceed the facility capability.

The main goals of the destructive test are both the dynamic characterization of the structural behavior for the components / sub-structures designed to dissipate the impact energy and to characterize the effect of the global behavior of the structure related to passenger's survival conditions during and after an accident.

LISA crash test facility consist of a main steel structure called "portal" on which can slides a truss structure called "trolley" by means of 16 aeronautical wheels. The height of the portal is 36m and the width of the trolley is 41 m.

To define the test article trajectory the portal can be oriented by 5 up to 90 degree by means of two different lift systems. For high values of the trajectory angle, it is possible to perform the crash test by dropping freely the trolley, while for low values of the trajectory angle, for which is not possible to get the impact velocity by free fall, the trolley can be accelerated by means of an external pneumatic system.

The trolley can guide the test article during its test run. After the test run the test article is released from the trolley, by means of a mechanical device, and in this conditions the test article can impact on tree different kind of impact surfaces such as soft soil, hard and water.

Each impact surface has a length of 90m, a width of 25m while the water pool has a depth of 5m.

LISA handling during test configuration and run is operated through a Monitoring and Control System (SMC) located in the control room in the main facility building.

To perform the crash test the portal is positioned at the angle of the trajectory predicted to get the requested impact velocity then the test article is installed on the trolley and the trolley is lifted to the selected test run. Once the checklist has been positively checked the release command of the trolley can be actuated by SMC.

Instrumentation

For the measurement of experimental data, mainly accelerations, a on board data acquisition system is used (SAD). It consists of 3 independent units, each one equipped with 33 measurement channels compliant with SAEJ211 standard.

The technical characteristics of each acquisition unit are the following:

Signal sampling up to 100kHz (10 kHz for a single channel);
16 bit A/D converter;
Accuracy 0.1% ;
6 poles Butterworth analog filter;
Channel autocalibration;
Durability:

+/-250g @ 12 msec ½ pulse sin;
+/-70g @ 500 msec ½ pulse sin;
+/-35g @ 2 sec ½ pulse sin ½;
+/-60g @ 100 msec for each axis.

Two anthropomorphic dummies (Hybrid II and Hybrid III FAA) are used to evaluate the level of passengers injuries. Both are 50% ile and instrumented with load cells and accelerometers.

Two high speed digital cameras allows movies recording useful for motion post analysis and for the analysis of test article impact on the facility ground and of the passengers interaction with cabin interiors.

Measurement techniques

The measurement of the signals such as accelerations, deformations and loads, is performed on board of the test article during the impact with the ground.
The signals are acquired as "Row Data" with a cutoff frequency of 1650 Hz by using an analog filter of CFC1000 class and sampled at 10 KHz.
Subsequently, during the data reduction, the acceleration signals are processed with a CFC60 digital filter for the analysis of the signals on the structure.
The crash tests are recorded with high-speed cameras from 500 up to 1000 fps.
Injuries on the occupants are measured with anthropomorphic crash test dummies, which are properly instrumented with sensors.

Customers

Alenia, AgustaWestland, Aerosekur, MIUR.

Partners

Lisa facility has been used in national and European funded projects for tests and research activities on behalf and in collaboration with Alenia, AgustaWestland, ESA, Aerosekur, NIAR (National Reasearch Institute for Aviation), Thales Alenia Space -Italy, DLR, CIDAUT, AFG, SRS, TNO, TUD, ECD, PTM, CU.

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