Analysis of residual strength of a helicopter tail boom

The aim of this work is to determine the residual strength of a Mi-24 helicopter's tail boom with a structural damage. The idea of this work has come from the fact that these helicopters are operated on a battlefleld and often suffer such damages. It may be crucial to make a quick estimation whether any particular damage can cause a critical failure to the whole structure. The scope of this work covers static loading of the structure during landing. The analysis has been based on a numerical model that makes use of the Finite Element Method. The model has been developed using reverse engineering techniques. Structural discontinuities have been modelled in characteristic sections where stress concentrations occur. Boundary conditions and loads applied have been chosen to simulate normal and hard landings. Two failure criteria have been chosen: one based on the Crack Tip Opening Angle (CTOA) method that enables very efficient verification, and the second concerning the tail boom tip dislocation, taken from the helicopter,s alignment manual. The specific load history has been designed to enable detection of tail boom tip dislocation due to plastic strain in the vicinity of damage tips after the hard landing.