Damage-zones of containment structures under aircraft impact loads

Containment structures subjected to aircraft impact loads need a non-linear transient analysis involving thousands of time steps to study the impact response. For any such large transient dynamic analysis, efficient numerical techniques, involving FEM-idealisation would enable such analysis to be carried out in a minicomputer environment within reasonable time. This paper gives an application of a simple three-noded shell element to idealise a containment structure and to predict the growth of damage in terms of concrete cracking, concrete crushing and steel yielding, using nonlinear transient analysis techniques. The study attempts to use a simple irrecoverable damage model based on a stress criteria for obtaining post-impact response of the containment shell. (author)