If evacuation modelling using simulation techniques is not a compelling alternative to the current practice of performing a single live full-scale evacuation demonstration to gain certification approval, then the world has to ask, why for heaven's sake not?
Computer simulation offers every stakeholder within the aviation community - manufacturers, airlines, regulatorsand don't let's forget those who will actually be caught up in an emergency: the travelling passenger and working crew - enhanced safety in an escape scenario.
Professor Ed Galea, an academic commissioned by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, who has done much work to try and convince the industry of its merits, presents a list of advantages: simulation can reproduce full-scale evacuation trials while being safer and more efficient it can provide a unique insight into an aircraft's performance capabilities and, finally, it can investigate a range of relevant scenarios rather than just one.
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While simulation could solve some of the shortcomings of current certification tests, it could pose new challenges for the industry, introducing as it does complexity and increased rigour. But surely the goal of all stakeholders should be safer aircraft?
The first challenge concerns the availability of data. Evacuation models depend critically on data to perform reliable simulations. As Galea points out, this requires co-operation between manufacturers, regulatory authorities and research groups.
Indeed, the regulators Flight International interviewed admitted that the 37 full-scale tests that have been conducted since evacuation demonstrations became required have generated sufficient data for rulemakers to be finally in a position to form a proposal.
But there's a problem. While the data exists, it's just not available. The regulators blame the airframers for sitting on proprietary information. Surely those policing the rules by which aircraft are deemed safe to fly should be privy to all detailed information on performance?
The airframers meanwhile justify their inertia by claiming that they have a minor role to play in the development of simulation, one merely saying: "We follow the regulations."
Meanwhile, Galea and his industry colleagues go back to feeding their world-leading evacuation models with data gleaned from real-life accidents, constantly refining simulation technology to reflect human behaviour. Tools that could save potentially more lives if there was a will to do so.
For more on aircraft evacuations, see or aircraft evacuations special report
Source: Flight International
