Evaluation of the influence of the aircraft structure in the cosmic radiation field incident on crews and avionics

• Grant number: 17/01886-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2017
• End date: June 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Aerospace Engineering
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Claudio Antonio Federico
• Grantee: Adriane Cristina Mendes Prado
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos Avançados (IEAv). Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial (DCTA). Ministério da Defesa (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

During the flight the aircraft is inserted in a radiation environment, thus, the electronic devices and the crew are continuously exposed to ionizing radiation. This environment is altered with the solar cycle, space weather, geomagnetic latitude and especially with altitude. The problem of controlo f dose level and particle fluence for aviation becomes more important due to the advent of increased operating ceiling (there are civil aircraft flying at up to 45,000 feet above sea level and on polar routes) and the miniaturization of embedded devices in the aircraft. This PhD project proposes to evaluate, using a computational tool, the scattering of cosmic radiation inside a large or medium-sized aircraft at typical altitudes of flight. The aircraft will be modeled with its main materials and structures in the MCNPX code and the particle fluence will be obtained in rich detail through the gPartAt computational platform for representative flight situations. This work will allow the identification of critical regions in relation to the amount of radiation, both for humans and for avionics devices, and the possible differences in the fluence of particles found can be used favorably in reducing the doses and the probability of failures of the embedded devices. This type of analysis can be favorable to flight safety if introduced into the step of avionics devices positioning of the aircraft design. This is a little explored and innovative subject and until the present moment no work like that has been found in the literature with the details that will be approached in the present study. This work will consider six different types of particles present in the radiation field at altitudes including its angular and energy distributions. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PRADO, ADRIANE CRISTINA MENDES; PAZIANOTTO, MAURICIO TIZZIANI; QUESADA MOLINA, JOSE MANUEL; CORTES-GIRALDO, MIGUEL ANTONIO; HUBERT, GUILLAUME; PEREIRA, MARLON ANTONIO; FEDERICO, CLAUDIO ANTONIO. Simulation of Cosmic Radiation Transport Inside Aircraft for Safety Applications. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS, v. 56, n. 5, p. 3462-3475, OCT 2020. (17/01886-3)