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Birdstrike: approaches to the analysis of impacts with penetrationmore

by Luigi Castelletti

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Birdstrike: approaches to the

analysis ofimpacts with penetration

Marco Anghileri, Luigi-M L

Castelletti & Valerio Mazza

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Abstract

Birdstrike is one of the most dangerous threats for ight safety and, therefore, aircraft before being put into operational service have to be certiedfor a

proven level of bird impact resistance. Since the experimental tests areexpensive and dicult to perform, numerical techniques are usually usedto

develop higheciency birdproof structures. In this work, bird strikeand (subsequent) penetration inside the airframe are investigated.

Dierentmodels of bird are considered: advantages and disadvantages of which havebeen discussed with regard to the impact of a bird

against the intake of aturbofan engine. 1 Introduction Since the early beginning of aviation history, birdstrike has been one of themost dangerous threats

for the aircraft [1] that causes every year damagesfor more than eighty millions US-dollars - though most of times it has nottragic consequences.A

birdstrike is characterised by loads with high intensity and short du-ration [2]. The materials undergo high strain rates, large deformations andinelastic strains.

In addition, a deep interaction exists between the impactloads and the response of the structure. For those reasons, only with thedevelopment of

explicit codes based on

Finite Element Method

(FEM), atthe end of the eighties, it became possible to numerically analyse the eventwith a degree

of accuracy. Nowadays, computer modelling is commonly usedto develop high eciency (i.e. highresistance lowweight) bird-proof struc-tures.

WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, Vol 49Impact Loading of Lightweight Structures, M. Alves & N. Jones (Editors)c 2005 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 17433533

64 Marco Anghileri, LuigiM L Castelletti & Va lerio Mazza

With specic regard to the structure of an intake, this is designed to carryaerodynamic and thermal loads. Therefore, it is not surprising that it mightcollapse when

struck by a bird. This event is extremely dicult to modelalso because, since the intake is in large part manufactured using compos-ite materials, the

failure comes abruptly and with mechanisms dicult topredict

a priori

.The failure of the intake is tolerated, but the y-home capability has tobe

guaranteed. In particular, for the certication, it has to be demonstrated(with an experimental test) that the bird, after strike and penetration, doesnot

damage the equipments necessary for the correct functioning of theengine that are usually placed behind the intake (Fig. 1): the intake musteither deect

the bird or absorb the most part of the impact energy.In this work, using LSTC/LS-Dyna [3], a numerical model to analyse theimpact and the subsequent

penetration of a bird inside the airframe of theintake of a turbofan engine is presented. Initially, dierent approaches tothe bird modelling are

presented and discussed. Hence, a birdstrike onto aturbofan-engine intake is considered.Figure 1: Scheme of a turbofan engine. 2 Bird modelling

The numerical model of the bird geometry

(shape and dimensions) and

material

(constitutive law and equation of state) - is central in a birdstrikeanalysis

when using explicit FE codes. On that depend the impact loads.Customarily, the bird is modelled like a
cylindrical water bullet

[4]. Since abird is primarily water and

the impact velocities are rather high, this modelis commonly accepted - though it is not free from criticisms [5].
WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, Vol 49Impact Loading of

Lightweight Structures, M. Alves & N. Jones (Editors)c 2005 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 17433533

Birdstrike: analysis of impacts with pen etration 65

2.1 Problem overview

Since late eighties, explicit FE codes have been used to develop high eciency bird-proof

structures [4]. Nevertheless, the analysis of birdstrike ontocompliant structures by means of these codes, which adopt a Lagrangianapproac

h, is particularly troublesome. In fact, after the early instants of theimpact, the distortions in the mesh of the bird cause a loss in accuracy,a

reduction in the time-step and, eventually, an error termination of thesimulation.In that, techniques based on
Eulerian

or

Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian

(ALE) approach seem to have an advantage and, therefore, some explicitFE codes have implemented also an Eulerian or an ALE solver.

Drawbacksof these solvers (which eventually limit their use) are: the
diffusivity

, thelack of sharp boundaries, and the large computational

resources necessaryto run the analysis.A dierent approach to the pr oblem that recalls t he
Discrete Element Met hod

(DEM) consists of modelling the bird

with a set of nodes endowedwith a mass. Indeed, when applied to the analysis of birdstrike, the
nodalmasses

(NM) model provided a

relatively good numericalexperimental correlation [5,6].Recently, solvers based on

SmoothedParticleHydr odynamics

(SPH) Methodhave been developed and

implemented in the framework of an explicit FEcode to analyse events characterised by large deformations. In fact, being(genuinely)
meshless

, the SPH Method does not suer the problems of meshdistortion.Ano ther known meshless method is the
Element Free Galerkin

(EFG): de-veloped for crack growing analysis, it is not particularly suitable for birdstrike analysis [5].
2.2 Experimental data

The data collected during experimental tests are fundamental in the devel-opment of a numerical model.In 1996, an intense test programme has

been carried out to characterisethe numerical model of the bird [7]. Using an air-gun, 4 lb -chickens werelaunched with

an initial velocity of 265 kts toward a massive (rigid) targetinclined of 30

deg

. The target was instrumented in

order to acquire the prolein time of the impact force. Birdstrike tests are rather dicult to perform.Neverthele ss, the tests were repeatable (as shown by the close

agreementamong the data obtained) and the data acquired reliable (when comparedwith the ones of the tests previously carried out [2]).

WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, Vol 49Impact Loading of Lightweight Structures, M. Alves & N. Jones (Editors)c 2005 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 17433533
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