Crash simulation

Hello,

 

Im an aerospace engineering student and im learning FSX to simulate flight.

What im now trying to find is how MSFX simulate crashing or collision? Also, when there is a crash, how MSFX determines force, velocity ,etc.

Plus, how flight is terminated after any crashes?

We say that MSFX use JABSim, YASim, UIUC, and LaRCSim as the FDM, but if we consider only in crashing and terminating, what would be used?

 

Sorry for specific questions, but it would be so helpful to know that.

Kind regards

Prim

Hello,

FSX to simulate flight.

Yes, it simulates flights.

MSFX simulate crashing or collision?

It is not meant to simulate that.

I'm an aerospace engineering student...

 

What's your homework in a nutshell and when is it due?

 

Cheers,

...how MSFX simulate crashing or collision? Also, when there is a crash, how MSFX determines force, velocity ,etc.

 

What's MSFX? If you mean FSX, the only way you know you've crashed is when the screen freezes and the "Crash" message comes up, then after a few seconds the flight automatically restarts.

You Crash in 3 ways-

1- by hitting something

2- by landing too hard

3- by damaging the plane with violent manoeuvres.

 

BUT if you want to be immune to crashes, use the "Ignore crashes and damage" button on the screen below, and leave the "Aircraft stress causes damage" and "Allow collisions with other aircraft" boxes unticked.

You can also play about with the 5 sliders at top left, I leave mine at halfway like this-

 

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-Airc-Realism_zpsbdxr8kic.jpg~original

 

PS- the IL-2 WW2 combat sim models crashes nicely, for example if you land too hard the wheels and bits fly off and the plane rumbles along on its belly in clouds of dust.

I think X-Plane models crashes like that too, but it's a pity FSX doesn't.

Yeah, the Sturmovik series is really good at modelling aircraft destruction. You might also look at the DCS series--it can be quite spectacular. There are also tons of crash compilation videos for both sims on YouTube--might give you a better idea of what sim will suit your needs.

don't say sorry. I want to learn about it too. :)

FSX is not much of a crash simulator. That being said, that does not mean that there is no damage or crash "modelling" (whatever that is supposed to mean) at all:

 

1. Object collisions: this is the simplest one. The sim determines if your aircraft model gets in contact with another object (simulator object or autogen). This is considered to be a crash, and your flight ends with a message window saying that you crashed.

 

2. Damaged airframe: Of course it would be possible to build a damaged aircraft model and simulate a flight with it in FSX. But as FSX is a civillian simulator, it is not possible to damage your airframe at runtime, during a flight. Developers could simulate this if they wanted to, the same way that ActiveSky Next simulates wake turbulence or the Majestic Dash-8 simulates the normal flight (= with an external programmatic addon). I am not aware of any dev who did though.

 

3. Damaged engines: the effects of a damaged engine are simulated, as this is no different to flying with an engine shut down. If and by how much the flight model of the particular airplane reacts accordingly is up to the developer of the plane.

 

4. Overstressing the airframe: this is simulated too, but the algorithm used to determine the overstress is unknown (to me). It could be as simple as exceeding G-Forces over time.

 

5. Overspeeding: same as overstressing. It will not happen instantly when you exceed the maximum speed of the particular aircraft, so some kind of calculation is involved too.

 

6. Crash landing: this is actually simulated in great detail. Not the crash itself, but the simulator has to determine an envelope of many flight parameters that constitute a successful landing or a crash. Again the algorithm used for this is unknown, but it is a lot more complicated than "am I on the runway-is the attitude OK-is the gear down-is vertical speed low enough".

 

All crash situations have in common, that once the simulator determines that you have crashed, it displays the crash model, then a simple message that you have crashed. The crash model is seldom implemented, so if you want your FSX crashes to be more "eventful", you would have to add a crash model to the aircraft in the model.cfg yourself:

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526949.aspx

Entries in the model.cfg

 

normal: External 3D model used under normal circumstances.

interior: Internal, virtual cockpit, model.

crash: 3D model used if aircraft crashes.

 

A few developers use this, but most don't. Again, this is probably due to the fact that FSX is a civillian simulator, and you are not supposed to crash your aircraft and you should not be shot at. If developers want to, they can simulate the effect of any type of in-flight damage on the flight model. But this would mostly involve an external module, programmed individually for every aircraft (proof of concept: the external FDE of the MJC Q400). A few of the high-quality addons actually do simulate quite a lot of that. Try leaving the comfort zone with an A2A accusim plane or the RealAir Dukes.

My reply doesn't need to be as long or as complex:

FSX is completely useless at the kinetics of damage modelling because it is nearly useless at modelling kinetics.

 

Look elsewhere

 

That is all

I forgot to mention that if you select the "Engine stress damages engine" option in the screen I posted earlier, the engines of some FSX default planes will start to splutter, lose RPM and belch flames and smoke from under the cowling if you handle them too roughly.

The default Mustang racers are notoriously touchy in that respect, here's one in trouble a couple of minutes after I slammed open the throtlle to take off-

 

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-engine%20fire_zpscfz83fhi.jpg~original

 

If you keep the option selected for the challenge of carefully nursemaiding the engine to stop it blowing a gasket, this thread discusses how to do it-

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?298709-What-s-Up-With-The-FSX-P-51D

Thanks for responding everyone!

 

Im trying to start doing some crashes to analyse them. But what I found is when the aircarft was nearly crashed the programme wil reset automatically to the initial position. Is there any way to stop this resetting to let it crashes?

 

Prim

Thanks for responding everyone!

 

Im trying to start doing some crashes to analyse them. But what I found is when the aircarft was nearly crashed the programme wil reset automatically to the initial position. Is there any way to stop this resetting to let it crashes?

 

Prim

 

Please have another look at the answers above. When the simulator decides that you have crashed, it resets the scenario. Nothing is simulated beyond this point in FSX, there is no code in the sim that would visualize the crash happening.

 

With the exception of the developer of the aircraft making a "crash model" as I described above. But that is purely visual, for a couple of seconds you see a crashed aircraft. And I am not aware of any developer ever using this feature, though I am sure that there are some.