Preliminary analysis of fuel tank impact

Following the accident involving the Air France Concorde in 2000 the effects of fluid structure interactions resulting from the impact of a fluid filled tank has become a cause for concern. The work reported here relates to the design of a series of experiments loosely based upon the Concorde incident which aimed to assess whether the probable failure mode in the Concorde accident could occur in land based vessels. Preliminary numerical analyses were undertaken for two of the nine cases that were investigated experimentally in which an empty tank was impacted by a projectile with a velocity of 14 m/s and 21.9 m/s Initial numerical results for the acceleration at two points on the tank surface and the deformation at the impact zone showed good agreement with test data. Future work is discussed including further numerical modelling incorporating fluid structure interactions for the analysis of the cases when the tank is partially full or completely full.