Structural Design and Safety Verification of a Service Hatch Used at Airports by FEM Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the design of a maintenance shaft hatch cover at an airport service road which will be utilized at airports in the European Union. The shaft has a particular application: it will be used for information networks and airport security. The hatch is also subject to extremely stringent safety criteria. For instance, in a catastrophic case, a wheel from an aircraft could strike the hatch cover. Based on all the input information and after a thorough analysis of the European standards concerning the safety of transport, after performing numerous FEM static evaluations, a hatch cover that can be utilized in airport infrastructure was created. As a result of the FEM analyses, the elements with the greatest impact on static safety were identified. Finally, a simulation of stress tests based on the traffic areas for which the hatch cover was designed, in terms of traffic safety, was carried out. The test led to a positive result, showing that it is possible to apply the hatch directly in practice.