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Purpose Wingtip loss is an existing type of transport aircraft hazard which is a real threat to flight safety caused by a missile strike, underwing engine explosion or impact with obstructions when performing near-ground operations. The primary effect of the wingtip loss is an asymmetric rolling moment, which may result in the fatal loss of control for the aircraft. This study aims to assess whether aerodynamic degradation will cause a wing-damaged transport aircraft to lose its balance under a certain level of wing damage and if a pilot can compensate for the loss of aerodynamic force and regain the balance of the aircraft. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, experimental and numerical studies were conducted to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a wingtip-lost transport aircraft in landing configuration. Various levels of wing damages including wingtip, slat and flap loss were considered. The numerical simulations were performed with ANSYS Fluent. The computational fluid dynamics calculation was validated by wind tunnel tests. Findings The aerodynamic performance of the aircraft with wing-damaged condition was presented. It was revealed that the wingtip loss leads to an asymmetric rolling moment and a reduction of the lift force, which affects the balance of the transport aircraft. The methods to compensate for the lift force and the asymmetric rolling moment were investigated for a safe landing. The lateral balance cannot be maintained in cases with serious damage on the wing (larger than 53% of the semi-span) or moderate damage on the wing with loss of slats and flaps. Originality/value The nonlinear results indicate the importance of aerodynamic assessment for the sake of training pilots to properly handle the hazard situation and explore the critical facts leading to the air crash.

Graphite plays an important role in the pebble-bed high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTR) as moderator, reflector as well as internal structural material. The HTR core consists of a large number of graphite bricks interconnected with keys. It is required that the structural integrity of the HTR core be maintained when subjected to the seismic load. Hence it is important from the viewpoint of seismic design to investigate the seismic responses of the graphite bricks. Considering the pebble-bed HTR has various graphite shapes, a generalized three-dimensional model with the associated computer code is developed to treat these interconnected graphite bricks with arbitrary shapes. In this model, each brick is treated as a rigid body with six degrees-of-freedom: three translational displacements and three rotations around the brick center of gravity. A nonlinear spring dashpot model is applied to present the collision between adjacent bricks and the interaction forces through the key systems. In the numerical tests, the code is verified by comparing predicted responses with exact solutions for two cases and good agreement is observed. The model is then used for the dynamic analysis of the side reflectors of the pebble-bed HTR core under a given seismic load. The calculated response behaviour of the side reflector column is summarized and discussed.