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2nd International Conference on Structural Integrity and Exhibition 2018

2nd International Conference on Structural Integrity and Exhibition 2018
Bird strike damage and analysis of UAV’s airframe
Bird strike damage and analysis of UAV’s airframe
XV Portuguese Conference on Fracture,
a PCF 2016, 10-12 February 2016, Paço
a de Arcos, Portugal
Akhilesh Kumar Jhaa*, S Sathyamoorthya, Viswa Prakasha
a
Akhilesh Kumar Jha *, S Sathyamoorthy , Viswa Prakash
Thermo-mechanical a
modeling of a high pressure turbine blade of an
Aeronautical Development Establishment, DRDO, New Thippasandra Road, Bengaluru 560075, India
Aeronautical Development Establishment, DRDO, New Thippasandra Road, Bengaluru 560075, India
a

airplane gas turbine engine

Abstract P. Brandãoa, V. Infanteb, A.M. Deusc*
Abstract
a
Composite Department
materialsofare
Mechanical Engineering,
increasingly being usedInstituto Superior Técnico,
for Aircraft/UAVs Universidade
structures suchdeasLisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais,
wing components 1, 1049-001
or fuselage Lisboa,
panels, etc. A
Composite
collision
b to materials
bird during areflight
increasingly
can leadbeing used for
to serious damage to thePortugal
Aircraft/UAVs structures such
Aircraft/UAVs as wingparticularly
structures, componentsduring
or fuselage
takeoffpanels, etc. A
and landing
IDMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
collision
phases. to bird
The during
Federal flight Regulations
Aviation can lead to serious
(FAR) damage
requiresto theallAircraft/UAVs
that forward facing structures,
components particularly
need to duringa certain
prove takeoff level
and landing
of bird
Portugal
phases.
strike
c The Federal
resistance
CeFEMA, Aviation
in certification
Department Regulations
tests before
of Mechanical (FAR)
they requires
Engineering, are that for
allowed
Instituto all forward
Superior Técnico, facing
operational use.components
Thisdepaper
Universidade needAv.toRovisco
focuses
Lisboa, prove a numerical
certain
on thePais, level ofLisboa,
bird
modeling
1, 1049-001
strike resistanceofina certification
and simulation two-pound bird testsimpact
before onthey are allowed
composite for
structuresoperational
of the UAV
Portugal use.using
This ABAQUS/Explicit
paper focuses on the numerical
with modeling
impact velocities
and
rangingsimulation
from 40m/sof a two-pound
and 60m/s. bird The impact on composite
bird is modeled usingstructures of the UAV
Coupled Eulerian using ABAQUS/Explicit
Lagrangian (CEL) technique using with impact velocities
a material model
ranging from 40m/s
with properties andto60m/s.
similar Theinternal
fluid. The bird is modeled
pressure using
of the Coupled
bird model Eulerian
is linkedLagrangian
to the change(CEL) technique
in volume using
with a materialofmodel
an Equation State
Abstract
with
(EOS). properties
Based on similar to fluid.
simulation The internal
results, the highpressure of the
probability bird zone
strike modelhas is linked to the change
been reinforced and in volume
fifteen with an flights
successful Equation of State
have been
(EOS).
achieved. Based
The on simulationtests
experimental results,
willthe
be high
carriedprobability
out on panel strike zonetaken
level, has been
from reinforced and fifteen
various airframes successful
modules flights have been
of the UAV.
During The
achieved. theirexperimental
operation, modern
tests willaircraft engine
be carried out on components
panel level,are subjected
taken to increasingly
from various demanding
airframes modules of theoperating
UAV. conditions,
especially the high pressure turbine
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. (HPT) blades. Such conditions cause these parts to undergo different types of time-dependent
© 2019 The
degradation, Authors.
one Published
of Published
which by creep.
Elsevier B.V.
© 2018
This The
is an Authors.
open access article isunder theACC
by Elseviermodel using thelicense
B.V.
BY-NC-ND finite element method (FEM) was developed, in order to be able to predict
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This
theisiscreep
an openbehaviour
access article
of under
HPT the CC BY-NC-ND
blades. license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This
Selection an and
openpeer-review
access article under
under the CCFlight
responsibility
data
BY-NC-ND records (FDR)
licenseunder
of Peer-review
for a specific aircraft, provided by a commercial aviation
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
responsibility of the
Selection
company, and peer-review
were used under
to responsibility
obtain thermal of Peer-review
and mechanical under responsibility
data for three of the SICE
different 2018SICE 2018 organizers.
organizers.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Peer-review under responsibility offlight cycles.
the SICE 2018In organizers.
order to create the 3D model
needed for the FEM analysis, a HPT blade scrap was scanned, and its chemical composition and material properties were
Keywords: Composite; UAV; ABAQUS/Explicit; CEL; EOS
obtained. The data that was gathered was fed into the FEM model and different simulations were run, first with a simplified 3D
Keywords: Composite; UAV; ABAQUS/Explicit; CEL; EOS
rectangular block shape, in order to better establish the model, and then with the real 3D mesh obtained from the blade scrap. The
overall expected behaviour in terms of displacement was observed, in particular at the trailing edge of the blade. Therefore such a
1. model
Introduction
can be useful in the goal of predicting turbine blade life, given a set of FDR data.
1. Introduction
©An unmanned
2016 aerial
The Authors. vehicle by
Published (UAV), commonly
Elsevier B.V. known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. The
An of
flight unmanned
Peer-review
UAVs aerial
under
may vehicle
responsibility
operate with(UAV), commonly
of various
the Scientific known
Committee
degrees of ofasPCF
autonomy:a drone,
eitherisunder
2016. an aircraft
remotewithout
controla human pilot aboard.
by a human operator,The
or
flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator, or
Keywords: High Pressure Turbine Blade; Creep; Finite Element Method; 3D Model; Simulation.

* Corresponding author. Tel.:+91-080-2505-7118; fax: +91-080-2505-7227.

* Corresponding
E-mail address:author. Tel.:+91-080-2505-7118; fax: +91-080-2505-7227.
akhileshjha@ade.drdo.in
E-mail address: akhileshjha@ade.drdo.in
2452-3216 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an ©
2452-3216 open
2018access article under
The Authors. theby
Published CCElsevier
BY-NC-ND
B.V. license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an and
Selection openpeer-review
access article under
under the CC BY-NC-ND
responsibility licenseunder
of Peer-review (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.
Selection and peer-review
* Corresponding under
author. Tel.: +351responsibility
218419991. of Peer-review under responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.
E-mail address: amd@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

2452-3216 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
2452-3216  2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Peer-review under responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.
10.1016/j.prostr.2019.05.051
 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428 417
2 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

fully or intermittently autonomously, by on-board computers. There is a wide variety of UAV shapes, sizes,
configurations, and characteristics. UAVs perform a wide variety of functions. The majority of these functions are
remote sensing, this is central to the reconnaissance role, that most UAVs fulfill, other functions include transport,
research and development, to search for and rescue people in perilous locations etc.
However, as UAVs tend to be smaller than conventional aircraft and with a limited fuel capacity, their flight times
tend to be significantly lower than those of their manned counterparts. This issue becomes even greater when
considering the payload of the vehicle, which can range from a set of surveillance payloads to a small store for based
on user requirement. In order to improve this, a reduction of weight in the UAVs is paramount and the use of
conventional aerospace materials might not be a feasible design option in the construction of UAVs. As a result,
composite materials take a central role in the design and manufacture of drones.
Composite materials have been extensively used in defense, automotive and aerospace applications attributed to
their high stiffness and low weight. In these applications, they play a key role in absorbing the energy against impact
loading. An impact event could range from a dropped tool, travelling at a low velocity (<10m/s), to high speed
projectiles travelling at a few hundred meters per second. The structural response of the composite can be very different
in these two scenarios, from minor damage to complete penetration of the composite.
One of possible and very critical accidents is a bird strike on the aircraft/UAV during the flight mission. A collision
with a bird during flight can lead to serious damage to the aircraft/UAV. All forward facing components, i.e. Engine
propeller blades, Radome, forward fuselage skin as well as the leading-edge wings, Horizontal and Vertical stabilizers
are prone to bird strike. Various certification requirements are set by the certification authorities depending on the
parts. The final design and acceptance of the bird resistant components are typically dependent on the testing. The
typical method of bird proofing an airplane is to build and test, then redesign and test again. The bird strike test is
carried out in accordance with Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) parts 23, 25 and 33. Earlier the tests used to involve
a live chicken of an appropriate weight shooting against a structure that needs to be certified. For the simplicity, the
sanitary and the repeatability reasons, the synthetic bird of an appropriate size and weight is now used. The GAS-
GUN type shooting canon is used for the certification testing having 5-10 inches of diameter. High speed cameras,
usually 10,000-20,000 frames per seconds are placed inside and outside the cockpit to capture the details of any failure.
During the certification process, an aircraft must demonstrate its ability to land safely after being struck by a bird
anywhere on the structure, at normal operating speeds. Impacted components must maintain structural integrity during
the large transient loading resulting from bird strike loads. In order to comply this requirement, aircraft manufacturer
needs to test the aircraft structure experimentally. This physical validation is time consuming and very costly as this
involves number of iterations. Hence in order to optimize the number of experiments required for certification, FEM
methodology is implemented.
Finite element numerical simulations of bird impact on composite plates have been carried out to study the
performance of progressive material damage models in predicting the structural response. The impact loading
simulations are performed by using ABAQUS/Explicit. An existing constitutive material model capable of progressive
damage modeling was used to describe material behavior of the laminate in the ABAQUS environment. The material
model is implemented as an in-built ABAQUS VUMAT subroutine. Different methodologies available for fluid
structure interactions are Lagrangian, Coupled Eulerian and Lagrangian (CEL) and the Smooth particle
Hydrodynamics (SPH) methods. In the current study, CEL formulation with general contact in Abaqus/Explicit are
used.

2. Bird impact theory

There are three major categories of the impact event, i.e. Elastic Impact, Plastic Impact and Hydrodynamic Impact.
These impacts are categorized based on the impact velocity, and the stresses generated in a projectile due to impact.
The elastic impact is typically a low speed impact, and the stresses generated due to collision are lower than the
materials yield stress. Therefore, the nature and duration of impact depends on the elastic modulus and elastic wave
velocities of the materials. In case of a high impact speed, the produced stresses cause plastic deformation of the
targeted materials. For this impact, materials strength is still a dominating factor, and hence such impact falls under
the plastic impact category. Finally, for a high impact velocity, the stresses generated by the deceleration of the
418 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428
Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 3

projectile greatly excels the yield stress of the projectile material. This is the hydrodynamic regime, for which the
projectile can be treated as a fluid.

Nomenclature

L Length of the bird

Vo Initial impact velocity
T Duration of impact (Squash up time)
Us Velocity of shock
ρ Density of bird
Γo Grueneisen coefficient
Co Speed of sound
s Material constant
E Young’s Modulus
ν Poisson Ratio
σcy Compressive yield stress
P Hydrostatic yield stress
E1+ Young’s modulus along longitudinal fiber direction 1
E1- Young’s modulus along transverse fiber direction 1
E2+ Young’s modulus along longitudinal fiber direction 2
E2- Young’s modulus along transverse fiber direction 2
G12 Shear Modulus
X1+ Tensile strength along fiber direction 1
X1- Compressive strength along fiber direction 1
X2+ Tensile strength along fiber direction 2
X2- Compressive strength along fiber direction 2
S Shear stress at the onset of shear damage
Gf1+ Energy per unit area for tensile fracture along fiber direction 1
Gf1- Energy per unit area for compressive fracture along fiber direction 1
Gf2+ Energy per unit area for tensile fracture along fiber direction 2
Gf2- Energy per unit area for compressive fracture along fiber direction 2
α12 Parameter in the equation of shear damage
d12max Maximum shear damage
σyo Initial effective shear yield stress
C Coefficient in hardening equation
p Power term in hardening equation
dmax Maximum value of damage variable used in element deletion criterion
εmaxpl Maximum value of equivalent plastic strain for element deletion criterion
εmax Maximum (Positive) principal logarithmic strain beyond which the element will get deleted
εmin Maximum (Negative) principal logarithmic strain beyond which the element will get deleted

The bird impact process can be considered as the hydrodynamic impact. The bird essentially behaves like a fluid
during impacts; they do not bounce and the impact duration is approximated from the bird squash-up time. The squash-
up time is given by:

�
�� (1)
��

The bird impact process can be classified into four stages, they are, Initial Impact Phase, Shock Propagation, Steady
state flow and Pressure Decay phase as shown in Fig. 1. At the initial impact phase, the particles at the front end are
 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428 419
4 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

brought to rest instantaneously and the shock wave propagates through the projectile. As the shock wave propagates
it brings the material behind the shock wave to rest. The pressure in the shock compressed region is known as Hugonoit
Pressure.

Fig. 1. (a) Initial impact phase; (b) Shock propagation; (c) Steady state flow; (d) Pressure decay process.

Although the magnitude of the pressure is very high, it last only a few microseconds. There exists a pressure gradient
at the edge of the projectile, which makes the particles to go flow steadily and in the outward direction. After several
reflection of release waves, a steady flow condition is established. As the impact continues, there will be a decay phase,
where the pressure reduces to zero and is the termination phase.

3. Numerical modelling

3.1. Bird Model

The bird material has been replaced with an equal mass of water, as birds mostly consists of water and air trapped
in the bones and lungs. The bird geometry is represented as a cylinder with hemispherical ends as this geometry
resembles the pressure time history of the real bird during the impact tests as shown in Fig. 2. The bird characteristic
such as diameter, cylinder length and density are obtained by using empirical formulas.
A bird with mass equal to 2 pounds has been considered in this analysis as per the certification requirement.

𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 � �𝐵�� � ����𝐵𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 (2)

𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘�
���𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵�� � ��� � �� � 𝐵 ��𝑘𝑘�� �𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵� � ���𝐵 𝑚𝑚� (3)

�𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝑚𝑚���𝐵𝐵 � ������ � 𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 ����� � �����𝐵𝑚𝑚𝐵 (4)

420 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428
Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 5

���� ���� ��������

�������� ������ � � � � � � � ����� � (5)
������������������ � �

����� ������ � �������� ������ � �������� � ����� � (6)

Fig. 2. Bird geometry.

As birds, mostly composed of water, a water-like hydrodynamic response has been considered as a valid
approximation for a constitutive model for bird strike analyses. The Equation of state (EOS) describes the pressure-
volume relationship with parameters of water at room temperature, hence the Mie-Grüneisen EOS Us-Up approach
in Abaqus/Explicit was adopted for this purpose. The material properties used for bird is as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Material Properties of bird.

Properties Values
ρ (kg/m )
3
960
Γo 0

Co (m/s) 1480

S 0

3.2. Composite plate modeling

The plate studied was laminate of woven fabric made of carbon fibers reinforcing epoxy matrix. The plate was
produced with 0o/90o and 45o ply using wet layup process with a fiber volume fraction of 45%. Both sandwich and
monolithic plates has been used in the study. The sandwich plate consists of face plates of woven carbon fabric and
low-density foam core. The dimension of plate was 400*400mm, with a woven glass fabric on the outer side.
Woven fabric offer a good combination of damage tolerance, specific stiffness, and specific strength, when
compared to unidirectional laminates with an equivalent volume fraction of in-plane fibers in all orientations, they
also, present a lower in-plane stiffness and strength due to the tow waviness. Also, woven composites are less
vulnerable to delamination and typically display a superior impact response. Additionally, due to their textile nature,
they offer a higher drapability during manufacturing. For these reasons, the application of woven composites in the
aeronautical, naval, and automotive industry is becoming increasingly widespread, especially in crash relevant parts.
The sandwich laminates were modeled in Abaqus as continuum shell face sheets of FRP Woven fabric and a soft
foam core, by providing elastic and plastic behavior, material damage initiation, damage evolution and failure. Tie
constraints has been used between face sheets and core.
Rohacell 51WF foam core has been used in the manufacture of sandwich laminate plates. Crushable Foam model
available in Abaqus was used with following parameters as shown in Table 2.
Experimental results from uniaxial compression test were used for Crushable Foam Hardening value. Hydrostatic
yield stress of Rohacell 51WF foam parameter was taken from literature. NLGEOM option was checked to capture
large deformations. The core model was modeled as isotropic and meshed using C3D8R elements.
 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428 421
6 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

Table 2. Properties of Rohacell 51WF foam.

Rohacell 51WF Values
E (MPa) 22
n 0
σcy (MPa) 0.85
P (MPa) 0.82

For woven fabric progressive damage modeling, Abaqus VUMAT subroutine has been implemented that is
accessed by naming the user-defined material with the string ÁBQ_PLY_FABRIC. Continuum shell elements are
used to models the target plates in ABAQUS. Continuum shell elements are the closest possible formulation that,
being 3 dimensional in nature, can capture through thickness response for composite laminate structures.
Table 3. Shows the formulation of the input deck of ABQ_PLY_FABRIC. The 1st and 2nd line contains, the elastic
moduli, Poisson’s ratio and in-plane fiber strengths in the 1 and 2 directions. Line 3, represents the fracture energy
released per unit area for loading along fiber direction 1 and 2. The ‘+’ and ‘-’ sign indicates, the mode of tensile and
compressive loading respectively. Also, in Line 3, the material parameters that represent the shear damage parameter
and maximum shear damage values are entered.
Line 4 contains properties that are used to model plastic hardening of the matrix such as, the initial effective shear
yield stress and the coefficient and power term in the hardening equation respectively, which is given by the formula,

𝜎𝜎� �𝜀𝜀 �� � � � 𝜎𝜎�� � ��𝜀𝜀 �� �� (7)

Parameters in Line 5 are used as criteria for element deletion.

Table 3. Input deck for ABQ_PLY_FABRIC in ABAQUS.

*MATERIAL, NAME=ABQ_PLY_FABRIC
*DENSITY
*USER MATERIAL, CONSTANTS=40
** Line 1 E1+ E1- ν E2+ E2-
** Line 2 X1+ X1- X2+ X2- S
** Line 3 Gf1+ Gf1- Gf2+ Gf2- α12 d12max
** Line 4 σy0 C p
** Line 5 1DelFlag dmax εmaxpl εmax εmin
* DEPVAR
DELETE 16
16

3.3. Methods of computation

There are currently four modeling methods available, such as Lagrangian, Eulerian, Coupled Lagrangian Eulerian
(CEL), and Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics, which are being used for the impact damage analyses. Each methodology
has its own strengths and weaknesses.

3.3.1. Lagrangian Formulation

In the Lagrangian formulation, the volume is divided into a large number of small geometries called elements.
Mesh nodes are connected to a material by certain imaginary points called Integration points. The mesh follows the
material, i.e. one material per element, during entire simulation. This formulation is generally used for solid materials.
422 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428
Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 7

In the Lagrangian approach, the history dependent variables can easily be tracked. However, the major drawback of
the Lagrangian formulation is that the large distortion of a part leads to hopeless mesh and element distortions causing
inaccurate results and error termination of an analysis.

3.3.2. Eulerian Formulation

In the Eulerian formulation, a reference mesh is treated as a control volume, i.e. mesh remains fixed, and a material
under study flows through the mesh. Since the mesh does not move, there is no possibility of mesh deformation, which
is a major advantage. This formulation is mostly applied to fluid applications. However, the Eulerian formulation
requires more computations than the Lagrangian, which results in longer simulation time. In addition, it is very difficult
to track the material interfaces, and the history of material variables.

3.3.3. Coupled Eulerian Lagrangian (CEL) formulation

The Coupled Eulerian Lagrangian (CEL) formulation technique combines, the Lagrangian, and the Eulerian
formulation. The main objective of CEL method is to utilize the benefits of the Lagrangian, and the Eulerian
formulations. For general Fluid-Structure problem, the Lagrangian mesh is used to discretize the structure, while the
Eulerian mesh is used to discretize the fluid. The interface between the structure and the fluid can be represented using
the boundary of the Lagrangian domain. On the other hand, the Eulerian mesh, which represents the fluid that may
experience large deformation, has no problems regarding mesh, and element distortions. The only drawback of the
CEL methodology is its longer computational time.

3.3.4. Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) Formulation

The Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics is a Lagrangian mesh-less technique for modeling fluid flow. The SPH
integrates the hydrodynamic equations of motion on each particle in the Lagrangian formulation. The computations
in the SPH are carried out by sorting technique. During simulation, the particle sorting is carried out after each cycle
to determine the number of neighbors for each particle. The spatial distance, also known as smoothing length, varies
in order to keep the same number of neighbors during simulation. In compression, the smoothing length gets small,
while during tension it gets big. In the SPH, each particle has mass assigned to it. However, the interpolation method
used in the SPH is very simple, and it will strongly be affected by a particle disorder. In addition, a boundary condition
implementation is a hard task, and the fluid particles’ penetrations into the boundaries must be avoided.

Fig. 3. (a) Setup for bird strike simulation; (b) CEL formulation.
 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428 423
8 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

4. Simulation approach

In CEL analysis of a bird impact, the Eulerian space through which the Eulerian material flows and collides with
the Lagrangian structure is represented by a stationary cube. Meshing is simplified in the CEL approach, as there is
no need to mesh the soft projectile (Bird). The Eulerian space is meshed with EC3D8R element, the only mesh type
available in Abaqus for the Eulerian problems. The geometry of bird has been positioned along with composite plate
fitted in the fixture inside the Eulerian domain, which completely engulfs both the composite plate with fixture and
the bird. The Eulerian section assignment defines the materials that may be present in the mesh over the course of the
analysis and an initial condition specifies which materials are present in each element at the beginning of the analysis.
The initial condition effectively determines the initial topology of the materials in the models as shown in Fig. 3.
A dynamic explicit step has been defined with a time period of 6 millisecond condition. Automatic time
incrementation has been used without any mass scaling. General contact with frictionless tangential property has been
defined for the interaction behavior. The impacting forces will be transmitted to the Lagrangian structure through
Eulerian-Lagrangian contact, which is based on the penalty contact algorithm. The Eulerian implementation in
Abaqus/Explicit is based on Volume-of-Fluid method. In this method, material is tracked as it flows through the mesh
by computing its Eulerian volume fraction (EVF) within each element and has a value of zero and one. If a material
completely fills an element, its volume fraction is one; if no material is present in an element, its volume fraction is
zero. The volume fraction tool performs Boolean operation of reference geometry and the mesh. This creates a set of
nodes that defines the initial position of bird in the Eulerian domain.

5. Simulation results

The simulation was carried on two composite laminate plates consisting of different ply combinations. The
geometric details of Plate-1 is shown in Fig. 4. The plate was impacted with 2lb (0.9 kg) bird travelling at velocity of
40m/s. In this paper, to study the structural response of different laminate plates, bird strike analysis on the plates has
been carried out.

5.1. Test Plate-1

Fig. 4. Plate-1 Geometric details.

The Fig. 5 shows the bird strike event on the test plate-1 at different time interval. The stress generated due to
impact are lower than the allowable stresses of the composite plate.
424 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428
Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 9

Fig. 5. Bird strike simulation in Plate-1 at 40 m/s (a) t = 0 sec; (b) t = 0.0011 sec; (c) t = 0.0033 sec; (d) t = 0.0055 sec.

As seen from the simulation, the plate upon impact did not show any damage. The kinetic energy absorbed by the
plate is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. Energy absorption in Plate-1 during impact.

 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 416–428 425
10 Akhilesh Kumar Jha et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

The test plate-1 was also subjected to impact with bird velocity of 60m/s with the same bird mass. The stress
generated due to impact are higher than the allowable stresses of the composite plate. Therefore, the bird completely
penetrates through the plate. The impact process at different time intervals is shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7. Bird strike in Plate-1 at 60 m/s (a) t = 0 sec; (b) t = 0.0008 sec; (c) t = 0.0016 sec; (d) t = 0.0024 sec; (e) t = 0.0032 sec; (f) t = 0.004 sec.

5.2. Test Plate-2

The geometric details of Plate-2 is shown in Fig. 8.

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Fig. 8. Plate-2 Geometric details.

The Fig. 9 shows the bird strike event on the test plate-2 at different time interval. As seen from the simulation, the
bird perforate through the composite target plate impacting at a velocity of 40 m/s.

Fig. 9. Bird strike in Plate-2 at 40 m/s (a) t = 0 sec; (b) t = 0.0012 sec; (c) t = 0.0024 sec; (d) t = 0.0036 sec; (e) t = 0.0048 sec; (f) t = 0.006 sec.
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6. Experimental setup for bird strike

The dynamic impact test was carried out using a gas-gun type shooting cannon to study of impact response on the
composite target plate. The target plates were secured on a custom-made fixture fabricated using mild steel capable
of withstanding the high velocity impact loads from the synthetic bird. The test Plate-1 has been considered for impact
with 2lb (0.91 kg) bird. The CAD model of test fixture with target plate and the experimental setup is as shown in Fig.
10 (a) and (b) respectively.

Fig. 10. (a) Test fixture model for bird strike; (b) bird strike on target plate.

It was found that the plate did not fracture due to the impact. A comparison of the obtained experimental and
numerical results is further made in order to establish if the proposed models are accurate and valid.

7. Conclusion

This research work has been carried out to simulate bird impact damage assessment and get clearances to first flight
without any component level destructive testing. In board term, the purpose of our work is to simulate accurately the
bird impact, under reference to airframe structural integrity. Through, the analysis the compliance of continued safe
flight and landing has been made sure, without going for complex and costly testing.
Finite element numerical simulations of the bird impact were carried out by using CEL methodology to represent
the bird body. The bird was modelled using the EOS with water properties. Due to the wide use of composite materials
in aircraft structures, the progressive damage modelling for woven fabric available as built-in subroutine in Abaqus
has been successfully carried out. The numerical simulation of bird strike was validated using experimental test and
the results were successfully implemented. So far twenty-five successful flight has been achieved.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Aeronautical Development Establishment, DRDO, Ministry of defence for
providing an opportunity for their support and encouragement in this research work.

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